Your mind, your health
The body is the servant of the mind; it follows every lead of the mind whether they be conscious or subconscious, at the slightest provocation of the mind the body responds accordingly. We witness this concept in our daily lives, take for instance when a certain threatening situation befalls a man, even before the mind can fully grasp or have time to fully absorb and think about the situation and how best to respond; the brain which is the physical organ of the mind will instantaneously send out stress signals throughout the body and the body’s sympathetic nervous system then stimulates the adrenal glands, triggering the release of catecholamine which prepares the body to flee or to fight. The body is flushed, and looks pale.
Over the years, researchers have extensively studied this cause and effect and have gained insight into the long-term effects it has on the physical and psychological health. Overtime, repeated activation of this biological activity takes its toll on the whole body. Research have shown that some of its long- term effects to include high blood pressure, formation of artery-clogging deposits, and that it also causes brain changes that may contribute to anxiety, depression and addiction. Dr. Leaf had this to say on thoughts:
“When you think, you build thoughts, and these become physical substances in your brain.”
Many people are unable to filter what information they receive into their minds thereby not being able to apply brakes too their thoughts, consequently, robbing themselves of the beauty of calmness and peace, after a while, Alas! Several health challenges associated with stress begin to spring forth. Now, do not get me wrong the fight or flight response is as vital as the human sense of smell, as a matter of fact it could even save one’s life in the advent of a life threatening situation, say standing in a head to head stance with a fast approaching vehicle or a vicious serpent, before you can even have time to process the state of affairs, your reflexes would have rapidly prompted into action: to flee to safety or attack an adversary. Your recent activity will have short-term effect on you, for example, the release of cortisol (stress hormone) will increase your appetite, so you will want to eat more to replace lost energy.
However, that is not the crux of our deliberation; you should focus more on the long-term effects of this activity especially when it has to do with unnecessary stress conditions over unsettling news incautiously gathered from the mainstream media or via any other means. Emphasizes here is placed on being guarded over what your mind receives. If a man will have absolute health let him first filter what contents enter his mind, before he brood over the affairs of his stomach. As Manly Hall puts it:
An unhealthy mind, even in a healthy body, will ultimately destroy health.
Change of diet can only go as far to deliver a man’s health, but a mind which goes a thousand mile per hour has very little to no salvation from even a clinically prescribed diet. Thoughts of distress, fear and anxiety have been known to kill a man faster than a bullet. A troubled mind will express itself through a sickly body.
“If you would protect your body, guard your mind, if you would
renew your body, beautify your mind.” –James Allen Mental wellbeing
During the Covid19 Lockdown in Nigeria, what the many people did not realize was that whilst they were indoors and busy absorbing all kinds of news from different sources by watching, listing to and reading whatever that mentioned ‘Covid19’, a lot of damages were done to their mental health. A lot of people became depressed and others showed signs of trauma, not just by being locked inside but by digesting all kinds of negative news giving birth to depressive thoughts and other forms of negativity.
Personally, I downloaded apps and visited almost every digital news site, even in the middle of the night I would wake to read the covid19 updates, I wanted to be the first to know and share updates with my friends on social media, often these information would be forwarded many times and sometimes find
its way back to me, a vicious cycle. This behavior became a ritual, doing the same things all day and every day. I seemed to spend my day running after my thoughts on trending news even when I did simple tasks. It got to a point where I would think of what I needed downstairs and took off after it, only to get there and forget what I intended to get, this leads to another trip upstairs to go where I was standing when the thought occurred to me. I had to start keeping a pen and paper handy as I tended to forget things more often.
Many people do not realize that every time they bewail or clamor over disturbing news and rumors, every gate of their mind is opened to all sorts of medical conditions, to intended manipulation and to external forces; therefore one must always be self-conscious of what goes into the mind to cloud it and make it apparently vulnerable.
“Everyone takes a shower to get rid of the dirt in the physical bodies, so does not it only make sense to clean your mind of the garbage from the outside world”—John Di Lemme
While it is justifiable to stay up to date on recent happening around the world and everything else, overconsumption of these dreadful streams of information can be detrimental to whole body by causing stress, overdrive and anxiety. Anxiety demoralizes the whole body and opens it up for all kinds of malady.