Happiness is one of the keys to not just living a good life but also living a healthier and longer life. Many scientific pieces of evidence have proved how happiness positively affects our health. On the other hand, people who have poor emotional health are more likely to get sick and even die prematurely than those who are happy and have a good sense of community. This is not shared to create fear, but more so of promoting mindfulness over the importance of emotional health because it’s just not talked about enough.
I’ve worked with a number of clients who have had poor emotional health leading to physical health issues, from mild discomforts and pains to full-on chronic sicknesses and diseases. It has been a great pleasure to see many clients heal emotionally while resolving their discomforts, pains, and sicknesses such from minor skin inflammations to a leaky gut, Crohn’s, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), large abscesses that keep on growing, kidney failures, strokes, heart attacks, cancers just to share some examples. Though I won’t lie, this healing journey does take some time. Nothing happens overnight right? To expand further here are five ways a poor emotional state can make you more likely to get sick:
5 Must-Read Reasons Why Poor Emotional Health Makes You Prone to Sickness
1/ Poor emotional health can cause chronic stress or heightened levels of stress
Stress is often an unavoidable part of our life. We can feel stress when we are facing changes, under pressure, worried about situations that are out of our control, overwhelmed by responsibilities, and many more. It’s just a matter of knowing how to manage stress when it comes. But if you have poor emotional health coping with stress can be difficult. Chances are you will feel more stressed out than you should be which can lead to chronic stress.
Chronic stress has negative effects on both the mind and body. It comes with physical and psychological symptoms depending on the severity. If you are suffering from chronic stress, you may also suffer from physical conditions such as aches and pains, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, headaches, upset stomach, muscle tension, and frequent illnesses and infections.
2/ Your emotional health can affect the health of your heart
If you want to literally take care of your heart, you need to keep your emotions in check. According to Dr. Srini Pallay, any strong emotion like anger may cause severe and fatal irregular heart rhythms when you have any type of heart disease.
But strong emotions and bitterness aren’t the only emotions associated with heart disease. Quieter, negative emotions can also harm your heart, and you don’t need to have a heart condition to be affected by it. People who feel isolated, lonely, and depressed are more prone to get heart disease or other diseases and die prematurely than those who feel loved and have a good relationship with people around them.
3/ Negative emotions can compromise your immune system
A brain study has associated negative emotions with a lower immune response against disease. It was found that people who were asked to dwell with distressing episodes in their life showed lower antibody levels after a flu vaccine while those who recall happy times developed high antibody levels.
Another study also shows evidence of how frequent exposure to negative emotions can affect immune response. In the study, scientists found higher levels of inflammation in participants who are exposed to negative moods than those who are experiencing positive emotions.
4/ Poor emotional health can cause emotional eating or decrease your appetite
Poor emotional health can lead to emotional eating. It happens when you use food to fill your emotional needs. Many of us turn to food not just to satisfy our physical hunger but also to find comfort, to relieve stress, or to reward ourselves. While it’s not bad to treat yourself with food once in a while, it can be a problem when you often find yourself eating too much junk food to make yourself feel better as we all know how unhealthy foods are bad for our health. It can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, to mention a few. I’ve been through this first hand and it took a whole year of dedicated healing to reverse, but what’s what year of focused healing for long-term health? Nothing, exactly. And I learned so much more about myself through it and have become so much more mindful of my own patterns and behaviors in a much healthier way.
On the other end of the spectrum, you may find yourself not eating enough food to keep yourself healthy if you are suffering from depression or body image issues (which are also linked to poor emotional health, lack of self-esteem). Not being able to nourish your body with the right amount of food can make you prone to catching illnesses and infections.
5/ Negative emotions may cause sleeping problems that can put you more at risk of diseases
When you are experiencing negative emotions, your brain releases chemicals to process those emotions, which can also affect your sleep. You will have a more difficult time falling asleep. Not getting a good night’s sleep can contribute to a number of health problems. Lack of sleep can weaken your immune system. You will be more vulnerable to respiratory infections such as common colds and flu.
Sleep deprivation also puts you more at risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Lack of sleep can cause your body to release less insulin after eating, and insulin helps reduce blood sugar levels. It reduces your body’s tolerance for glucose and this can put you more at risk for diabetes mellitus and obesity. Moreover, not getting enough sleep can hinder your body’s ability to heal and repair blood vessels and affect your blood pressure levels, which puts you more at risk of stroke and heart attack.
How Intuitive Healing Can Help You Improve Your Emotional Health
Your emotions are powerful. It can affect not only your mental state but also your physical health. This is why you need to manage them effectively. For those suffering from poor emotional health, intuitive or emotional energy healing can help significantly.
Intuitive Healing which is a more advanced type of Reiki is helpful for those who have depression, those suffering from emotional traumas, and have a hard time processing negative emotions. This type of healing is able to address old emotional wounds, deep emotional wounds, traumas, memories, and release suppressed emotions so that they no longer stay in your body. This way your suppressed negative emotions are released and have significantly less effect on your subconscious, and your body will no longer suffer from pains and illnesses brought by these negative emotions. Generally, a course of three to five Intuitive Healing sessions can do wonders and can tell us a whole lot about your body and its emotional health.
When you are freed from negative emotions stuck in your body, you will have improved emotional health. You will be happier and that will help you live healthier, giving you the freedom to live a much fuller life.
