Staying healthy is not just about going to the gym, eating right and taking vitamins. These things count, yet the root to health is actually mindset or the way you think and feel. If you live in fear or worry, which is actually faith for what you DON’T want, you are creating “dis-ease” in your body, and this will manifest as ill health in addition to the lack of ease, or lack of peace of mind.
How you feel does absolutely impact your health, and even if you try to deny and repress your feelings, if you are afraid to feel in repress your feelings, the “negative” energy will cause disease. This is the basis of stress. Stress is based in emotion; it is a psychological disease. What is stress?
Essentially it is provoke by fear that you are out of control, that those things in your life that you don’t want are coming and that you will not be able to be, do or have what you desire. Any of these things can provoke the survival response that releases chemicals in your body that are destructive.
Stress is now associated with everything from chronic colds to cancer. The good news is, that since it is based in perception and provoked by HOW you look at life, it can be reigned in and changed. CORE confidence, that comes from the inside out, comes from the inner Authentic Self of you, that part that is ultimately the source of personal power, wisdom and intuition that can lead you to a life that is empowered and fulfilling.
Core confidence comes from the inside out as does empowerment. Empower is just that, power coming from within. When I refer to core, I’m referring to the Authentic Self AND I see an acronym within the word.
C is for Courage, O is for Open-mind, R is for Reflection and E is for Enthusiasm. Within the word enthusiasm is “theos” which refers to God/Spirit and “en” is “in”/within.
So, in order to be truly empowered, your confidence and sense of self-esteem has to start from the inside out. As long as you look outside of yourself for security, love and self-esteem you are in trouble. Why do we allow others to tell us who we are and what we can do?
It’s primarily because we don’t trust ourselves. We’ve forgotten how to listen to our own intuition and guidance from spirit. We don’t “trust our gut”. This tends to come from years of not believe aware of how e wire our beliefs and just giving away our power out of fear of rejection. While rejection is particularly scary for children, and I do understand why, as grown adult women, we can make a decision and then set an intention to learn how to let go of the old stories that are wired into our own brain, nervous system and hence body.
Yes, this does require courage. Courage is not the absence of fear. FEAR here as referred to is Fictitious Evidence Affecting Reality – it’s psychological in nature. When I first started this journey, I had to first open my mind to new ideas. Trying to get a new result using the same information and doing things the same way really is a form of “insanity”.
I had to reflect on the thoughts feelings and emotions and stop judging them and running away. There is much wisdom to be gained from reframing our stories. I learned how to make friends with them and “update” my belief system.
Lastly, instead of looking for transient artificial happiness “out there” somewhere, I realized that as I dropped the old stories that my body felt different, my perception of self and others changed, and I started feeling natural joy within – and it was more often than not independent of what was going on around me.
This is true enthusiasm. It comes from within, from the Authentic, spirit self. You see you do not need to seek the Light outside of you; the Light is already within you. Our behaviors and attitudes are not the same as who/what we are. They are just a reflection of what we believe. In fact, at your core, you are already “ok” right now – just because you breathe. What do you think?
Staying healthy and stress seems to be on a lot of people’s minds lately. I came across an article just today that referred to the new study done by Dr. Anil Sood and others in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, that demonstrates that when experiencing stress, mice and humans had acceleration in the growth of cancer cells, in this case, ovarian.
The bottom line – stress is hazardous to your health. Many people do not realize that the chronic feelings of “overwhelm” that they feel – you know, not enough hours in the day, long “to-do” lists and not enough rest and sleep – is really what stress is.
It is the feeling that you cannot control what is happening to you and it is also the fear that you are under threat of some kind, be it job loss and even feelings of insecurity. Yes, it has also been shown that low self-esteem can trigger this stress response in your body. So, is stress something that “you cannot help”?
Do you believe that if your environment where different that then and only then, you can overcome overwhelm? If you believe this, you are like most people. I used to buy into this one back in the 1990’s. It was then that I first experientially realized that stress starts within, it is an inside issue.
It is not the “facts” that cause stress. It is not the things that are happening around you as much as it is the “fiction”, the story about the meaning of the facts. It is about where you are putting your focus and whether or not you are taking care of your mind and body – from the inside out.
Staying healthy is the goal of most people. As I look at our healthcare system, it has never been as important as it is today to be proactive in staying healthy.
Between the expense healthcare and medication, the threat to your financial stability and the questionable “scientific” data that supports that taking a million, kazillion (I know this is not a valid term) drugs is acceptable, I’d say one had better do everything possible to maintain their health as naturally and as cost effectively as possible.
Did you know that there is a definite mind-body connection and that stress is related to the reason for 75-90% of all primary care visits to physicians? Actually, I could have told you this without any fancy statistics.
It just plain makes intuitive sense. When you are angry and upset, notice how your body feels. Notice how much more difficult it is to concentrate. Then notice how you feel when you are joyful and happy.
In fact, have your blood pressure checked as you blow a fuse. Have it checked when you are in a relaxed state. It is likely that it will be high with anger and normal to low when relaxed. A relaxed state is a healthy state. I want to pick on worry in this blog post today though, because it is so epidemic.
I had the clerk in my neighborhood grocery store yesterday, tell me in definite “I will not change my mind terms” that there were “no jobs” available for her son to obtain in all of the United States, and that he would have to leave the country to find a job in his field.
Unless he made horse and buggies or telegraph/typewriters, – you know, something we don’t even use anymore – I doubt that her statement is true.
Yet, she obviously looked worry and upset as I discerned her energy and noticed the contorted expression on her face. I’m going to give you 7 reasons why you don’t want to go there. Worry is essentially faith for what you DON’T want. Simple as that.
It hasn’t happened, the person is just imagining it to be happening or is expecting (faith) that it will happen. Why not expect the best? Or at least remain neutral. In a nutshell, people generally worry because we are conditioned to do so.
As a world, we have so trained our brain to live in fear and expecting the next disaster that our nervous system is always on alert to “fight, flight or freeze”. This is what the stress response is.
Empowerment seems to be a developing buzzword these days. I think people are starting to realize that there is more to life than stress and struggle and they want to do something about the status quo other than whine and complain about it.
I’m all for it as truth be told, talking about what is wrong all day long only makes things worse – or at least feel worse. This is because what you focus on expands and your words and language matter.
This is true also when you speak your words powerfully. When you speak in terms of what you want and imagine what you can do, be or have, you are just as likely to feel good and excited and achieve your goals as when you do the opposite. Think about it; when was the last time you saw someone who was chronically negative, do anything of significance that attracted abundance and happiness?
Those that walk around in a funk complaining about the sky falling down are not very likely to notice opportunities all around them or to take action to move toward success. They are too overcome by fear, their story about how bad life is.
Well, even the words “self-improvement”, though innocent I’m sure, are not the best way to focus your attention if you want to start making some upward bound quantum leaps in your life. Here’s why.
It’s the word “improvement”. It implies that there must be something “wrong” with you right now. I have an “aha” that has really shifted my perception. It is not “improvement” so much as it is “growth” or unfolding.
Why does a “weakness” have to be “bad”? It’s because we are geared to be critical and judgmental and look for the worse, to look for “flaws” in others and ourselves. I’m not advocating that we ignore our weak areas, no; I’m saying that wisdom dictates that we shift only our perception of how we interpret them.
While empowerment starts as an idea in mind, it doesn’t make any difference until we start taking the action to make it happen. Having a lot of good ideas or intentions is nice, but at the end of the day, results matter.
Time is something that I’ve noticed people talk about frequently. I often hear “I don’t have enough time”, “I’m sooooo busy”, and “Time is moving so fast”…these are only a few thoughts that do not empower you. They can in fact create a sense of powerlessness.
I’ve tried many “time management” tricks in the past, none of which really worked for me as they were all about changing my behavior. In fact, that is where most “change agents” focus their attention. They give you new behaviors to perform without really addressing what is driving your behavior in the first place.
Since I started working with the root cause of behavior, my life has drastically shifted for the better. What’s the root cause of behavior, you may ask? It’s thought and feeling, which forms your belief. Fundamentally, it is energy.
The belief will then cause us to take action and create the story of our life. It is simple; yet it is easy only if you convince your self that you CAN change your life, enjoy your life even, without struggle and “hard work”. What I’m saying here is that we are making up our life experiences, and what they MEAN to us as we go.
So, one of the most empowering things that has happened to me is to become aware of certain key elements that determine the quality of our life experience and begin to consciously deal with them. Getting back to time – did you know that time is not “real”? Even Einstein talked about time and the “theory of relativity”.
Stress is so common now that there is an American Institute of Stress. Unfortunate. I read a statistic recently that 75-90% of all visits to a primary care doctor is due to stress. What is stress?
Essentially it is an emotional dis-ease. It is a chronic feeling of overwhelm, insecurity and feeling out of control in some way. It is a perception based in danger or threat. And the good news is, it is by far psychological. I say “good” in that if you learn how to change your mindset, you can change your level of stress.
I know from first hand experience. It’s not even how much you do, as it is how you are thinking ABOUT what you are doing. It is generally not due to a real physical threat, only one in your imagination.
If you set your intention to change, and find someone, like me, who understands how to consciously calm down your brain, and reframe the way you perceive life, you can shift your reality from one based in fear, dread and unhappiness to one that is expansive, abundant and out right peaceful. Does it take effort?
Yes, and probably not as much as you think. However I will say, if you think you can change your life without any determination or commitment, you are just going to continue to stress yourself out.
Eliminating stress is really an inside job. Once you change your inner reality, the outer will just line up – it’s magical how that happens.
Confidence and self-esteem is needed now more than ever. It would do people much more good than medication, which is only masking the symptoms of fear and inner turmoil. That inner turmoil, and depression can set up a loop of low confidence and self-esteem, and the lower the confidence and self-esteem, the more stress and feelings of struggle can wreck havoc on your body.
That’s right – there have been studies that show that low self-esteem is bad for our health.
One way it works is that negative self-talk and that queasy feeling you get when you worry about what others are thinking of you actually triggers the stress response in the body.
A chronic stress response will weaken you immune system, raise your blood pressure, damage your heart and arteries, kill off your brain cells and stiffen your muscles and joints. All of this because you are living under the illusion that you are not good enough, not worthy or the crazy belief that something is “wrong with you”.
Boy, did I know that one. I used to have “delusions of inferiority”. Thank goodness I finally woke up and realized that I was making it all up. All the world is a stage all right and it is empowering to know that I can change my role I am playing at will when I know how – and you can too.
I think it is silly how some psychologist actually promote putting yourself down as if “thinking too highly of yourself” is a bad thing. Now, I’m not talking about narcissism, which is actually a form of insecurity and ego-based comparison. Narcisstic people don’t come from a place of inner peace either.
I’m referring to “core” confidence, which comes from your spirit, your heart. In fact, the word “courage” comes the French word “cour” which means “heart”. Courage is strength of heart. It does take courage to look at your fears, worries and negative self-talk in the face and boldly DECIDE to change.
Yes, it is a decision, a choice.
When you take the time to learn how to let go of the conditioned fears and small mindsets that are passed on to us, we can change from the inside out and let go, empower up and play a bigger game. I’ve done it and I continue to grow.
Emotional healing is an idea whose time has come. It is often ignored and swept under a rug, the old “elephant in the room” that people pretend that they don’t see. This is truly unfortunate as emotions are the fuel that runs the engine of our life.
Our intellect, logic and actions cannot rise above the quality of our perceptions, and emotions have more impact on our perception than what we think. This is also one reason why change can be so difficult for people.
We often think we want to change but because of our fear of feeling “bad” emotions, when uncomfortable feelings show up, we distract ourselves with all manner of drama, from workaholism to, well, all manner of additions and procrastination. And it’s not just our self-esteem and confidence on the table.
85% of all disease is stress-related, and stress is an emotional disease. Note the word “dis-ease”, or not at ease. The electrical energy of emotion is 60 times greater than thought and the magnetic energy is 5,000 times greater that thought.
In other words, when you feel good, you are a powerful attractor of that which resonates with the vibration of that feeling and when you feel “bad” you are going be on the “vibe” of these kinds of experiences. Science shows we live in a vibratory universe and like attracts like.
I use to be terrified of feeling pain, and there is a reason for this that often links back to early childhood, though not always. The long/short of it is, I discovered that once I stopped seeing feelings as something to be avoided, I was able to stop judging them and not dealing with my life.
It feels empowering to complete a project that requires expansion into new territories. Anything that gets you out of your comfort zone can wake you up to a whole new world.
I am in the process now of finishing up the publication process of my first book. I’ve always known since childhood that I would someday become an “official” author by having books published and even then my intention was that I would have something of importance to connect with my readers on, at a meaningful, empowering level.
I used to pretend that I had books published by making up fiction stories in spiral bound little notebooks. Little did I realize as a young child, that when it comes to writing on topics that empower, it is very common to have to have had life experiences that required me to personally experience the difference between feeling confident and empowered or feeling like a victim, or having a low sense of self-esteem.
As I look back now at my journey of coming through the fires of life and overcoming the challenges, I now see why there can be a time and season for everything under the sun. I realize that it is not what happens to one in life that determines the outcome of their story, but how one responds to life’s challenges that makes the difference.
It feels empowering to complete a project that requires expansion into new territories. Anything that gets you out of your comfort zone can wake you up to a whole new world.
