Healthy Perspective

The secret behind visualization

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 13:52:47 GMT

I believe it all started with the bestseller ‘The Secret’. Open any self help book and chances are big you’ll be advised to visualize. Whether it’s a better you, your dream job, financial success.. you name it. Visualization is a hype. So what exactly is the secret behind visualization techniques?

Let me start with expanding to the biology behind habits. After all, we often visualize (at least in the context of self help themes) building a new or improving a habit; eating healthier, exercise more, acting more patiently, etc.

Building a new habit is possible because of something called neural plasticity. Or in other words, the fact that the biology of our brain is changeable. In order to function well, our brain cells (neurons) make connections with each other that, simply put, work according to the same principle as your muscles: the more you use them, the stronger they get. And here you’ll find the trick for building a habit, You’ve probably heard through the grapevine that it’ll take 21 days to build a habit (unfortunately, this is not entirely true; it takes at least 21 days but on average about 2 months). By repeating the same act or thought every day, the connection in your brain that you need for this act/thought will become stronger to the point that this act will be automatic (think about driving a car). If for some good reason you’re grabbing your phone the moment you wake up for a few weeks on end, then after a while you’ll start grabbing your phone the moment you wake up without even thinking about it, However, when you consciously choose not to grab your phone during the first hour of waking up, the strength of the neuromuscular route for grabbing your phone will weaken again, and at some point it won’t even occur to you to grab it anymore.

So building a habit is really just strengthening brain connections.

What happens exactly with these connections when we visualize a habit? Imagine you want to get fitter, could you just sit on your couch visualizing getting fitter, et voila? Sounds too good to be true, right? You’ll be surprised to hear that this is not such a weird idea at all. Science showed that when you simply imagine doing muscles exercises, a part of the same brain areas are active as when you are physically doing the muscle exercises. Turns out that not only the neuromuscular brain connections are strengthened, visualization strengthens your actual muscles! The effect of visualization is so extensive, that in this case it prevents muscle atrophy1.

The principle where your brain is making little distinction between actually performing an action and imagining performing that action, we can apply to any aspect in life, which makes it so popular in self help books. Imagine that too often you’re reacting angrily, so you start spending a few minutes every day imaging how instead of reacting angry, you react sweet. Any negative thoughts that come up you convert into positive thoughts. The brain areas and connections that get activated during these sweet reactions and positive thoughts become stronger, despite the fact that you’re only imagining these reactions. When these connections become strong enough, this way of reacting will become habit. So we’re literally able to imagine ourselves into a better version of ourselves.

But it all gets more interesting. Turns out that our brain makes very little distinction between a memory and a future vision; in both cases largely the same brain activity is registered, especially when it comes to imagining / remembering Visuo-spatial contexts2. Another interesting discovery that confirms this: many amnesic patients are unable to imaging new experiences3. This could be where the secret lays behind visualization. By retrieving visuospatial information from your memory, you can easily place yourself in a future vision that contains that same visuospation information.

These discoveries lead to an enormous increase in popularity of research to visualization of events in someones personal future, in science better known as ‘Episodic future thinking’. While there’s multiple ways to visualize the future, like intention setting, planning and making predictions, episodic future thinking the construction of a specific mental representation of the future. For example imagining how a day at work in your dream job looks like. Science shows that this provides many benefits. For example when it comes to decision making. By human nature, people rather choose a smaller but immediate reward over a bigger reward that requires a longer wait. Visualization seems to increase patience to wait for the bigger reward. For example, studies under obese women found that visualization can help lower calorie intake; moving from an immediate food reward to a longer term health goal. Similar effects are found for people who are alcohol dependent and smokers. Furthermore, visualization of the future gets linked to better regulating emotions, creativity, and stimulates your capability to remember an intention, increasing the chances of actually executing the intention4. The latter makes that visualization is not only ideal to accomplish desired changes within ourselves, but it can also be applied to (material) aspects outside yourself. Will you visualize becoming filthy rich, then it won’t come guaranteed, and above all your wealth won’t just turn up one day, but it does increase the chance that you yourself will work hard to achieve this goal.

But well, since at the end of the day real wealth might just be happiness and health after all, let’s go back to that frame. As early as 1985, research showed that the easier subjects could image a disease is, the higher their prospection of getting that disease. Combine that knowledge with the knowledge we have on the nocebo and placebo effect (definition of place effect: ‘a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.’ The nocebo effect is the exact opposite: the doom-think version of the placebo effect) and it seems to be of enormous benefit to be able to imagine in detail how to heal from a disease5. Let me tell you about the story of Joe Dispenza, because a greater example of visualization and healing is hard to find.

Joe Dispenza was 23 years old with his own chiropractic practice, when he was run over by an SUV during a triathlon. The impact was enormous, fracturing 6 vertebrae in his spine. His orthopedic surgeon informed him the next day that, if he ever wanted to have a chance to walk again, they had to plant two 12-inch stainless-steel iron rods on each side of his spine. Even then, he’d probably face lifelong chronic pain. Refusing the surgery wasn’t an attractive option either; this would most likely result in paralysis from the chest down. Joe Dispenza chose the unthinkable: no surgery. Instead, he opted for self healing through visualization. Visualization of the perfect spine. At the start, he had a hard time focusing his mind: he was in pain, was scared, and experiences many emotions through this sudden experience in his life. He visualized vertebrae by vertebrae, starting all over again each time he’d loose his concentration. After a few weeks, he could visualize the entire perfect spine vertebrae by vertebrae without losing his focus. And each time he succeeded in doing so, he’d experience a deep sense of connection, a special feeling, in his words ‘as if hitting a tennis ball right in the sweet spot’. This feeling became easier and easier for him to recall, and he started to visualize other things. How he’d walk again, go out for lunch and watch a sunset. How he’d go running again. He describes it as an imagination so strong, that your brain thinks it is actually experiencing the image, and releases the chemicals that it would release when that image would be reality.

Long story short; 9,5 weeks after the accident, Joe Dispenza walked again, without cast, without surgery. With 10 weeks he saw patients again and with 12 weeks he was training and lifting weights. He was completely healed, and hardly ever experienced back pain since.

Joe Dispenza believed that the power that makes the body can heal the body. In his own words: zijn eigen woorden: 'I believe there is an intelligence, an invisible consciousness in each of us that is the giver of life. It supports, maintains, protects and heals us every moment. It creates nearly 100 trillion specialized cells (starting at just 2), it makes our hearts beat hundreds of thousands of times a day, and it can organize hundreds of thousands of chemical reactions in a single cell every second - among many other amazing functions. I reasoned at the time that if this intelligence was real and if it had such amazing abilities intentionally, consciously and lovingly, then maybe I could divert my attention from my external world and go in and connect to it - develop a relationship with it.'

He decided first of all to never let a thought pass his awareness that he wouldn’t want to experience. Second he would every day focus his conscious awareness on the intelligence described above and give it a plan, a pattern, a vision with very specific orders, and than leave the healing to that power, to let it do the healing for him.

The story of Joe Dispenza is exceptional and shows as no other the power of visualization and of the placebo-effect. Hopefully it makes you realize that our capacity for self healing gets underestimated too often. We often place the complete responsibility of our healing in the hands of another (eg your doctor). Maybe it’s time for us to start contributing to our healing more proactively ourselves.

Lastly I’d like to point out, like in nearly every blog, that I’m not advocating replacing modern medicine by alternative healing methods such as visualization (Joe Dispenza is an amazing, but also extreme example of the effectiveness of these techniques). Rather combine the best of both worlds, so you can pull out all the stops to facilitate your healing!

Inspired by the story of Joe Dispenza? Since his process of self healing he dedicated his life to this subject. Click here to find out more about his remarkable story and how he uses his experience nowadays to help others heal themselves.

Read articles of references:

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Health - is our 'normal' good enough?

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 19:32:47 GMT

This time a blog that is slightly more colored by my personal opinion. Because all the different responses on Covid19 has made me question our general health. Whereas one person argues we should do everything in our power to protect ourselves from the virus (wearing face masks, keeping distance, lockdowns, etc), another person argues we should focus on our general health, assuming that Covid19 is not life threatening to anyone who is in good health. However, the latter has brought quite some controversy. Whereas one self-appointed healthy person claims to experience Covid19 as nothing more than a common cold, the other self-appointed healthy person experiences severe, longterm symptoms. But when exactly do you fit the category 'healthy'?

For a while now I've been questioning how healthy our 'normal' really is. This questioning transformed into the desire to write this blog when I recently read that nearly 10 out of 17 million Dutch people suffer from a chronic condition (data in the year 2018 from the RIVM; the National Institute for Public Health and Environment) . More than half of this number suffer from more than one chronic condition. A chronic condition, according to the RIVM, being defined as 'a condition in which there is generally no prospect of full recovery'. In other words, 58% of the Dutch population suffers from a compromised health for the rest of his life. To bring some nuance to this number, 5.6 million people (or 33%) in that same year visited their GP at least once for their chronic condition. This means that 33% of the population is under care for a condition that is, or so it's said, lifelong. Add to that the number of people that suffer a non-chronic illness and you may wonder.. who can be called 'healthy' nowadays? Is it 'normal' that the majority of a population doesn't physically function according to what the body should be capable of? Of course age plays a role. The older we get, the higher our chance to suffer from a chronic condition. However, the aforementioned 58% isn't mainly made up by the elderly. More than 40% of people aged 40 or younger already suffer from a chronic condition.

It seems as though we as a population look at chronic conditions as something 'normal'; something we simply have to learn to live with. This is being fueled, in my opinion, by a healthcare system where the doctor is seen as the expert whose statements shouldn't be questioned, and where little value is attached to the unique experiential knowledge of our own body that only the patient himself has. If the doctor says a condition is forever, it'll be forever. Conditions such as asthma, cardiovascular diseases, stomach / intestinal problems, hypertension and eczema, which are all conditions that are greatly influenced by our lifestyle, are all referred to by the majority of doctors as chronic (and according to the RIVM, lifelong). When the patient accepts this stamp of 'lifelong' as a fait accompli, then what is left of the responsibility to search for the cause? One takes his daily symptom-relieving medication and so the chronic condition no longer interferes with one's daily life. Even better, we label ourselves as 'healthy'. Regarding the future prognosis of our health, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment literally states: "Despite the fact that we'll hardly gain any disease-free years, we will gain a number of years in good health and without restrictions". In other words, we can be sick, but as long as this does not limit our daily functioning, we are in 'good health'. But isn't illness by definition the opposite of good health?

Personally, I find this statement of the RIVM hard to digest. Is such a perspective on health 'normal'? Or can this perspective lead to the downplaying of the long-term dangers to our health? Our current lifestyle is full of factors that are clearly detrimental for our health, yet do not immediately interfere with our daily functioning. One year of obesity may not cause long-term health problems, nor does one week of sleep deprivation, or a few years of unbiological, preserved food, or one month of stress. But even though we still function well, behind the scenes our health is slowly crumbling due to factors like this. We live in a way that is scientifically proven to be unhealthy for us, but at the same time we label ourselves as healthy. Even when we experience clear initial signals from our body that it is becoming unbalanced (such as increased blood pressure, poor sleep, constipation, reduced concentration), we still tend to label ourselves as healthy.

A population of which 58% suffers from a chronic condition, 16% of the working population experiences a burnout every year, and more than 50% of adults are overweight, is not healthy in my opinion. In fact, something must be terribly wrong. It is time for a wake-up call (Covid19?) that makes us radically change course. That makes us change our lifestyle. So that we sleep 8 hours a night, feel fulfilled at work, prepare fresh, organic food, get plenty of exercise, spend enough time with loved ones, feel spiritually and creatively fulfilled. So that we do not become overweight, we do not slowly accumulate toxic substances in our body, and do not experience long-term stress that prevents our body from repairing itself when necessary. Let's make that the new 'normal'. Only then will our 'normal' be healthy.

Can emotional trauma be stored in the physical body?

Sun, 11 Oct 2020 13:57:40 GMT

Someone who got heavily bullied might walk with his shoulders hunched forwards, whereas the CEO who bursts with self-confidence will sit across from you with his knees wide open (guess what, it is believed that confident men love to show their ‘business’). We can read so much information from someones body posture, how is that exactly possible? Decennia ago science already showed that a closed body posture negatively influences your mood in that moment in time, whereas an open posture has a positive influence on mood. But does this work the other way around as well? Could positive / negative experiences not only get stored in our mind, but also in our physical body?

'Your issues are stored in your tissues' is a popular saying in the field of alternative medicine. The idea that your body, specifically your connective tissue (fascia), can store emotional memories is a well-accepted principle within disciplines such as Yin Yoga, Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), etc. As a Thai massage therapist myself, I believe this just as easily as the idea that we’re breathing oxygen. On a daily basis I see emotions being liberated when the physical body is being opened. Even better; you can often predict which emotions release with the opening of which body parts. When it comes to centuries old medicinal traditions (Ayurveda, TCM), this all makes perfect sense. These traditions are based on the idea that there are energy lines running through the body (known as meridians, nadis, SEN, etc) where our vital life energy runs through. These energy lines correspond to organs and emotions. When you experience physical, emotional or energetic trauma, these energy lines can get blocked and your physical body falls ill. However, when you unblock these energy lines by physically opening the body, the life energy can flow freely again (the principle behind different healing practices). Such a stored trauma, be it physical or emotional, which previously prevented the body from keeping itself balanced, can now be released and the body can heal itself again. Like the Nobel Prize winner Albert Szent once said: “In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was reached through the movement of energy”.

For some people this might sound logical and easily acceptable. After all, some therapies that are based on this principle (think of acupuncture) are now being widely applied and combined with conventional medicine. However, in case this is a far-from-your-bed-show, don’t leave me just yet. Modern science seems to find quite some evidence lately that confirm these traditional theories.

Let’s zoom in on Traditional Chinese Medicine. A popular treatment in TCM is called acupuncture; tiny needles are placed in the skin on specific acupoints that are located on the meridians; the energy lines that TCM is based upon. Apart from the many studies that have proven the efficacy of acupuncture as treatment for chronic pain conditions (which the skeptics among us might attribute to the placebo effect), research has also confirmed the mere physical presence of these energy lines and acupoints. It turns out that light is spreading about 20% better through lines in the body corresponding with the meridians than in reference lines. Also, a high energy metabolism takes place on the location of the meridians, which is even higher on the exact location of the acupoints. Another study showed that these acupoints can be stimulated by the resonance of music. Furthermore, in agreement with TCM theories, there seems to be a ‘cross-over’ effect: stimulating one meridian affects other meridians. In short, there is evidence that the energy lines that TCM is based on can be traced in the physical body. So where exactly are they located in our body?

When it comes to location of the meridians and acupoints, ultrasounds and postmortem research show that these are primarily located in our connective tissues, or more specifically in the fascia, both between and within the muscles. Interestingly, this is exactly the tissue that the recently developed but quickly rising in popularity discipline Yin Yoga is focussed on; opening of our connective tissue so that our life energy can flow free again. Sounds vague? You can easily experience this for yourself.

Give it a try at home: take a Yin yoga position that is meant to open your hips, while trying to relax your muscles as much as possible. This way, the stress of the stretch won’t affect your muscles so much, but rather work on the connective tissue. This tissue needs about 30-60 seconds to slowly start to open up. To facilitate this, don’t push yourself to the limit into the pose, but rather look for a 90% stretch. Stay here for about 3 minutes without making any movement.

You’ll see that this exercise might not only be uncomfortable physically, but also mentally. Many people might experience, especially the first times, feelings of frustration. Is this a coincidence? Not according to TCM; the meridians of the liver and gal bladder run through the hip area, and these meridians are associated with feeling of resp. anger and frustration whenever they are blocked (or kindness when energy is flowing freely!).

In need again of a scientific reality check? While science leaves plenty of room for future studies researching the relationship between energy lines and the emotions that they’re associated with in traditional Asian philosophies, in 2017 a study has been done that tried to quantify this relationship. Results showed a clear association: the liver was linked to anger, the heart to happiness, the lungs to sadness, etc..

To conclude, science has clearly shown evidence for the validity of century old ideas that the body contains energy lines that are connected to organs and emotions. This supports the idea that emotional trauma will affect the physical body. However, modern medicine often tends to ignore this idea completely. How often has your GP advised you to, in addition to your regular treatment for physical problems, process your emotional traumas (big or small, we all have them..)? Many will never have experienced this. And when we’re being completely honest with ourselves, maybe we wouldn’t have received it very well either?

Does that mean that modern medicine is a step back compared to traditional medicine? On the contrary!!! The advances in both knowledge and technology over the past centuries are literally life savers. Imagine getting to the hospital with a gaping abdominal wound and the doctor recommends balancing your energy lines through acupuncture or massage so that the body can heal itself better… I’d prefer a modern medicine doctor in an emergency room! Nevertheless, traditional and modern medicine do not always have to be mutually exclusive. Think about chronic diseases that did not develop from an acute injury, but developed over a long period of time. All that time prior to the full expression of symptoms and a doctors diagnosis, the body hadn’t been able to balance itself, leaving room for a disease to brood under the surface. In these cases, a so-called ‘holistic’ treatment, where not only physical but also emotional and energetic causes and solutions are being examined, could provide many benefits. Both as a cure as well as to prevent disease.

In need of some emotional release and curious to Yin yoga? Try it out with this short video!

Living in community

Sat, 26 Sep 2020 16:20:19 GMT

More important than a healthy diet?

In one of my favorite books ‘More brain less medicine’, dr. Lissa Rankin describes an amazing discovery that has been done in the 60s in the village Roseto, close to Pennsylvania, about the effect of living in community on physical health. Below I’ll recap what she describes.

Back in the day , Roseto was inhabited by Italian immigrants who were looking for a brighter future for their children. Their life was not necessarily healthy in the physical s ense ; they worked long days in the quarries and textile factories. The typical diet composed of mountains of pasta, Italian sausages, meatballs baked in bacon oil, and wine was flowing richly. For lack of money for olive oil, cooking was done in lard. In fact, 41% of their calories came from fat. Many of them smoked and little exercise was done.

In the 60s, dr. Stewart Wolf, whose attention was drawn by coincidence by Rosetos local doctor, made a remarkable discovery: in a time that heart attacks occurred in epidemic proportions and counted as the most important cause of death in men under age 65, the occurrence of heart attacks in men under age 65 in Roseto had nearly been 0 in the previous 7 years. The amount of heart attacks was about half of the national average, whereas the number of Rosetos neighboring city Bangor did correspond with the national average. Further investigation also pointed out that there was no cases of suicide, alcoholism, or drug addiction, and that there was hardly any crime. No one needed benefits, and ulcers were non-occurring either. People mainly died of old age.

Extensive research was being done to find an explanation for the apparent immunity for disease in this population and as much as two-thirds of the population was being followed, questioned and examined in many ways. The explanation would obviously not be found in the unhealthy diet and lack of exercise, and genetic factors didn’t seem to play a role either. So they investigated quality of drinking water and of medical care compared to surrounding places, but no explanation was found. Eventually the researchers concluded that it was the way of living that protected Rosetos inhabitants against diseases.

Rankin describes this way of living as follow s : “At night you’ll see how the town Roseto will come to life when people return from their jobs, strolling through the main street, halting to gossip with the neighbors and maybe drink a glass of wine with them before going home and get dressed for dinner. When the church bells ring, you’ll see the women gather together in communal kitchens to prepare a classic Italian feast, while the men move the tables together in anticipation of the evening ritual that brings the community together… Multiple generation homes are the norm. Everybody goes to church. Neighbours regularly walk into each others kitchens and the holidays are cheerfully celebrated together. The work ethic in the community is strong. Not only does everybody in Roseto have a job , they share a common mission, a life goal that brings some relief to their grueling work : t hey dream of a better life for their children. The people of Roseto take care of each other. Nobody in Roseto will be left to their own devices. Roseto in 1961 is the living proof of the power of the clan. "

Dr. Stewart Wolf concluded from his research that a strongly connected community that support each other, is a better predictor of a healthy heart than cholesterol levels and tobacco use.

Later, the importance of community was shown once again, but this time unfortunately by lack thereof.

“While the people of Rosetto exhausted themselves in the quarries and textile factories, sacrificing themselves for a better future for their children, the younger generation wasn’t so happy at all with the life in Rosetto, which in their eyes seemed immune for modernization. When the young people left to study, they brought back new ideas to Roseto, new dreams and new people. Italian Americans started to marry non-Italians, kids didn’t go to church anymore, became part of different associations and moved to single family homes with pools and fences. Because of these changes, multigenerational homes fell into disrepair and social life shifted from communal evening meals to the ‘everyone-for-themselves’ philosophy that was common in neighboring municipalities. The neighbors that previously regularly visited each other unanticipated, would now make an appointment by telephone. The evening ritual of singing adults while the kids played with marbles and played tag, changed into evenings in front of the television.”

The effect of the loss of the once so strongly connected community soon translated into a decline in the physical health of this population. “In 1971, when the amount of heart attacks in other parts of the country decreased because of a widespread adoption of healthier eating habits and regular exercise, for the first time in Roseto someone of the age under 45 died of a heart attack. The next decennium the amount of heart diseases doubled in Roseto. The amount of cases of high blood pressure tripled. The amount of strokes increased. By the end of the 70s, the amount of fatal heart attacks leveled the national average.”

Dr. Wolf concluded that an isolated individual can easily become overwhelmed by the challenges of every day and this can provoke a stress response. An individual surrounded by a supporting community however, relaxes himself. This type of relaxation translated itself into positive effects on the physiology of the body, which in turn leads to disease prevention and, sometimes, disease remission.

In case you find yourself thinking that you’re not lacking any relaxation, so you can hold off on your sports class this week and give yourself some slack when it comes to diet, then I’ve unfortunately relayed the wrong message. A healthy lifestyle is essential to d o as little harm to your body as possible. But do realize that the wellbeing of your mind, and specifically spending enough time in relaxation, has an unparalleled effect on our physical wellbeing!

Stress - How bad is it really?

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 16:33:48 GMT

No one loves stress. Or do we? With that deadline in sight it’s all of the sudden a lot easier to motivate yourself, and when you bust your ass all day you'll feel good at night about your super productive day. Feels great, right?! How bad can a little bit of stress possibly be?

Let me explain. Stress won’t do a zebra harm at all, you on the other hand can get ulcers from it. Ever heard of a zebra with an ulcer? Then what is the difference between the stress of an animal and your stress? A terrific ability to anticipate . A zebra in the wild will worry about its next survival threat when that threat is actually already lurking a few meters away from him, ready to attack. You and I on the other hand, have an incredible talent for imagination. We see threats in every corner and take them that serious as if they actually endanger our survival. After all, what if your boss won’t like your presentation? You might lose your job, an d imagine that consequently you can’t pay your mortgage anymore! Or what if you haven't controlled every single detail of your wedding day and it won’t turn out to be just absolutely perfect?! (For real, weddings are in the top 10 biggest stress factors).

We humans anticipate stressors, on the contrary to animals who only experience stress when the stressor is actually present, and because of that anticipation hu man beings as a unique species experience prolonged periods of stress. You might have heard the anecdote before: the zebra gets attacked (stressor) and within a few minutes the zebra has either managed to escape, or (unfortu nately) it’s end of story all together. In both cases, stress is finished. O ur stress on the other hand, the idea of a possibility that a stressor will occur, can keep us awake for hours at night. What exactly happens in our body while we’re worrying until the early hours ?

As stressors were originally acute survival t hreats, the stress response in our body is such that it brings you in the optimal state to 'fight or flight'. Your adrenaline is running through your veins, you become more alert, your digestive activity decreases, your heart rate increases, your cortisol levels increase so that your body and brain have more glucose (energy) readily available and even your immune system heightens to repair any possible damage coming from the threat.

Apart from that decrease in digestive activity maybe, this all doesn’t sound too bad, right? With that extra glucose and adrenaline you sure will finish that presentation in time and with a heightened immune system you don’t even have to worry about the next flu catching you.

Normally, these stress responses would return back to baseline after 30 min (after all, the survival threat would have passed by then). However, your mortgage is still running for another 20 years, so your stress will last a little longer than 30 minutes. And this is exactly where it goes wrong for us. As long as your stress lasts, your heart rate will stay elevated, with all its corresponding consequences. And that heightened immune system? That doesn’t only go back to baseline after 30 minutes; your ongoing stress will cause an actual decrease in activity of your immune system. Your previously heightened systems will now become exhausted instead. Your immune system can decrease in activity up to 40-70%!

High blood pressure, exhausted stress hormones and a suppressed immune system. What does this specifically mean? Consequences can surface in many different ways. Let’s look at the body’s normal functioning first. Our body has built itself from two cells only, so we can assume that it knows like no one else how to repair itself as well. And so this is what it does continuously; day in day out it’s occupied with eliminating potential cancer cells, detecting invading diseases, balancing our hormones. It’s doing so optimally when we’re nicely relaxt, when it’s not ready to fight or flight acute survival emergencies.

Now you can imagine that when your balance between stress and relaxation is off, spending too much time activating the stress response, your body will simply not have enough time and resources to perform its daily tasks of healing itself from minor daily damages. If this lasts a few days, no problem. But is your balance off for weeks/months/years, then the damage could accumulate substantially. Your hormones get out of balance, potential cells can develop into cancer, infections can enter your body without being detected in time, etc. There's an endless list of ailments that longterm stress can cause which you might not straight away have associated together. Acne, increased feelings of anxiety, unexplainable digestive issues, frequent urination, decolorization / hyper pigmentation of the skin, ringing in the ears, sexual problems, having a hard time making decisions, stomach aches, hyper alertness… the list goes on and on.

In short, a stressful deadline every now and then isn’t that bad for your health at all. Even better, the famous neurologist Victor Frankl described in his book ‘Man’s search for meaning’ how tensions, strivings and struggles can be something positive to give us a feeling of fulfillment in life (provided that these struggles are to obtain a valuable goal!). Important however, is to listen your body. I always say your body will start with a soft whisper; it will very subtly let you know when it’s spending too much time in stress mode. Not only by keeping you awake at night with worrying thoughts, but also by physical discomforts. Headaches, stomach aches, dizziness, etc. You might even end up with an ulcer, or your arteries start to slip. Go to your doctor and seek medical treatment for your symptoms, but don’t forget to, parallel to your medical treatment, work on eliminating the root cause. Because if you don’t change your lifestyle, the medicine might take the ulcer away, but your body is still spending too much time in stress mode. If you keep on going the way you did, your body will start to send off stronger and stronger signals (physical ailments are increasing), and one day you could find yourself confronted with serious health consequences. A quick worst-case scenario example: that ulcer can develop into stomach cancer, and those slipped arteries can cause a heart attack.

But it doesn’t have to get that far! (Side note: this does NOT mean that these types of diseases are solely or always (partially) caused by stress. Be careful with jumping to conclusions too quickly).

So don’t keep on busting and stressing until your body needs to scream at you to make you radically stop what you were doing and relax, but try to listen to the subtle messages behind the what often seem like ‘innocent’ physical ailments. Your body is not being difficult, it’s just trying to fulfill it’s most important task of keeping you healthy!

Uh oh, stressed out by this article? Don’t you worry! Science shows that meditation is an excellent way to reduce stress. And there’s more, it’s a great way to prevent disease. Curious to the hard facts about meditation rather that subjective experiences? Sign up for a Healthy Perspective to receive our blog about meditation and other topics soon!

Want to get to know more about stress in a light-hearted way? Read ‘Why zebras don’t get ulcers’ from Robert Sapolsky.