Your Body is a Fortress, Part 3 – Your Thoughts

The body is a fortress of muscle, ligaments, tendons fascia, and bone. My curiosity piques when I think about the activity going on inside these structures and tissues. I’m here to talk about how your thoughts affect your body, from a scientific perspective.

I remember taking a philosophy class in college and, in one class, the instructor was delving in to the question of how we know things. How do we decide for ourselves what is fact and what is fiction? We moved to the topic of scientific discovery, such as the existence of DNA and DNA’s capacity to serve as a warehouse of information for organisms. After class I stayed and argued with the instructor for a while. How can anyone put forward theories when they can’t see anything???

That was the beginning of my quest to become a molecular biologist. I wanted to understand how anyone could tease apart biological processes and phenomenon without being able to see anything. I needed to prove it to myself. After over a decade in the profession, I have been able to put my doubts aside. Now I get it.

Piecing clues together from as the ‘outside observer’ (bands on gels, shadows on X-ray film, kinetic curves from points plotted on a graph, for example) blew my mind. These experiences have also solidified my conviction: be aware (and beware) of what you’re thinking because our thoughts directly affect our bodies.

Profoundly.

I sometimes prove my point when I am discussing this topic in this way (sorry to be graphic):

If you’re a guy, and you think of the hottest chick on the planet, and you’re alone at home, what tends to happen physically? [fill in the blank…]

ONLY thoughts produced physical changes in the body. Thoughts were all it took, and now you need a cold shower.

(Apologies to all the gals out there, but the male version of the story is a little more apparent and solidifies my point, right?)

Now take this example and think about when you’re stressed at work, pressured at home, arguing with your loved one, or being tail gated on the highways. You start getting that little burn in your stomach, a bit of a headache, your upper throat gets a little tighter, and a whole mess of processes are launched on the molecular level. In the video, there are representations of molecules being released into the blood stream. And you know what they’re doing to you? For one, they are sending signals to your adrenal cortex to produce cortisol, which in turn produces other nasty things like upping your blood pressure, increasing blood sugar, and dampening your immune system. One of my least favorite effects of cortisol—it contributes to belly fat.

Believe me, I’d rather try to avoid stress and change my thoughts than be on a diet. Want to stay trim? Stop stress! Train your brain that it is not time to hunt buffalo and what is happening is in your control.

It turned out Gandhi was right!

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Many examples of your thoughts’ physiological effects (and much more entertaining, too) were discussed on one of my favorite, albeit a bit cheezy, movies, “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” I highly recommend renting it one evening.

Enjoy the remainder of your week, everyone. Take just 30 seconds when you wake up each morning to consider how your thoughts will make you better today, inside and out. Bathe yourself and your cells in positivity. You can do it!

Create a Great Day! And thanks for stopping by.