Can Your Emotions Make You Sick?

Healing your emotional pain to prevent disease

Thank you for taking our Cancer Defeated quiz. Your special report is already on its way to your inbox and should arrive within the next few minutes.

The good news is, when it comes to cancer risk, it looks like you’re living a healthy life. But remember, this risk assessment is not a guarantee that you will or won’t ever get cancer.

But one thing’s for sure, it’s never too soon or too late to take control of the aspects of wellness that can lower your risk even further.

And, believe it or not, your mental well-being is one of the biggest factors!

Healing your mind and emotions requires a committed effort on your part. It may also require, at least in the beginning, the help of a trained counselor or health care practitioner in the field of mind/body medicine.

If you feel that you require such help based on your responses to these questions, don’t hesitate to seek it out.

Healing your emotional pain is as important before a disease diagnosis as it is afterward… because there’s compelling evidence that emotional pain can lead to physical disease.

If you find yourself unable to cope with your emotions, then therapy or a support group are good ideas. If you’re having suicidal thoughts, get yourself to a medical professional at once. Your regular doctor can refer you to an appropriate therapist if you don’t know one.

As for “home treatments,” when you find yourself angry, negative, hopeless and not prioritizing your own wellbeing, here are some techniques that can aid you to restore your balance, peace and wellbeing – compliments of Dr. Deepak Chopra.

A German doctor, Geerd Hamer, is probably the most famous advocate of dealing with the emotional side of terrible diseases, like cancer. His approach is called New German Medicine. He believes ALL cancer happens because of a profoundly traumatic emotional event in the patient’s life – a death in the family, divorce, loss of a job – and it’s essential to face this sorrow and learn to live with it.

I don’t agree with the idea that emotional distress is the sole cause of cancer and other terrible diseases, but I do believe it plays a big role, and most alternative and integrative cancer doctors address emotional healing as part of their protocol.

As I mentioned before, professional counseling can be helpful, as can certain other forms of “talk therapy,” such as cognitive therapy. However, avoid counselors and psychiatrists who solely focus on treating emotional issues with drugs. Not only does this approach fail to address the deeper underlying issues that are causing your emotional problems, but it’s also highly toxic and can cause a host of serious side effects, including liver and kidney damage, impaired brain functioning, and even violent acts, including suicide.

In addition to counseling, the following therapies are also highly effective treatments for mental and emotional conditions: Bach flower remedies, biofeedback and neurofeedback therapy, breathwork, energy psychology, guided imagery and visualization, hypnotherapy, journaling, mind/body meditation, and neuro­linguistic programming (NLP).

You can train yourself to be happier one day (and thought) at a time

Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage points out that most of us are forever pushing the bar for happiness further and further out of our own reach.

We say things like, “If I could just get that raise…buy that house…meet the right man or woman…get that promotion…afford that vacation…then I’ll be happy.”

But even when we achieve those things, there’s always a next thing we want in order to “achieve happiness”.

But research shows that happiness happens by choice, not by chance. The people who are happiest tend to be the most successful (and the healthiest). So what are some of the choices you can make to form a foundation for happiness?

First of all, you can build a strong foundation for happiness by nourishing yourself with healthy, nutritious food, getting regular physical activity, and getting enough sleep. In many cases of mental and emotional difficulty, physical factors such as food allergies, poor diet, and nutritional deficiencies also play a major role. Neglecting any of these is a recipe for sadness, depression and declining health.

That’s why a health professional should screen you for these and other physical factors whenever emotional or mental difficulties become long term, as well as for all cases of cancer and other diseases.

Once that foundation for wellness is established, try weaving as many of these tips as possible into your daily life, your attitude and your outlook:

It turns out, emotions and cancer are far more linked than most of us realize. Your emotional state affects your health before, during and after a diagnosis. Taking these steps even in the face of bad medical news can help your healing process. And help make sure you avoid the emotional pain that can wreak havoc on your health in the shorter term too.