how does stable emotion affect your health

Emotional Stress Management – Key to Personal Stability

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 Stress relief tips can help you cope with both physical and emotional stress
 Emotional stress management can help you stay stable and balanced
 Emotional burnout can result if you let stress build too much

Emotional stress management is an important factor of your life, and a key to your personal stability.

Stress relief tips can help you keep your stress levels low, which will protect you from emotional burnout,

and help you stay fit and healthy with much less stress. Stress can also be a cause or contributor to

disease and illness. High stress levels can cause your immune system to weaken and become inefficient,

which can cause you to be at higher risks for illness or diseases. Stress can cause your body to release

stress hormones like cortisol, which may have a long term detrimental effect on your body.

Stress relief tips can be a big help if you have high levels of emotional stress. Exercise is an excellent

way to relieve your emotional stress, and help you get and stay fit at the same time. Exercise will help

your brain release chemicals that help you feel calm and relaxed. If your body and mind are in top

physical fitness, stress is much easier to manage and eliminate. Exercise will also get you away from the

situation causing the stress. Go for a run or a brisk walk, or swim some laps in a pool. This will help

relieve your stress and make you feel much better and more in control of your emotions.
Meditation is another emotional stress management technique that can really make a difference in your

emotional stability and your life. Relaxation therapy and biofeedback can also help you relieve emotional

stress, by teaching you ways to deal with your stress so it does not build up. All three of these methods

can be useful in helping you deal with emotional stress, and managing your feelings and emotions.

Progressive muscle relaxation can also have an emotionally calming effect, eliminating much of this

stress and preventing you from suffering emotional burnout.

Yoga is a terrific way to relax and get rid of stress, both physical and emotional. This method has been

used for more than five thousand years, and is still widely practiced in many countries of the world. This

method helps to restore the balance of your body and mind. Yoga comes in many forms, and these

exercises are derived from ancient India. Yoga restores mental and physical balance and stability, and

leaves you feeling relaxed and stress free. You will also see other benefits with yoga, such as more

flexibility and a higher tolerance for stress without experiencing emotional problems. Yoga does not have

any special requirements, and almost anyone can learn these exercises.

Good organizational skills and time management can also play a

big part in your emotional stress and stability. By organizing your home and workspace you will create a

place for everything. This can eliminate stress which comes from losing important items and not being

able to locate what you need right now. Managing your time efficiently and effectively means also making

sure you have time for yourself as well, to relax and rest. In the hectic pace today it is easy to forget to

take care of your own needs, because you may be so busy working, taking care of a family, going to

school, and doing other important things that you neglect yourself. Take an hour each day just for you.

Soak in a bubble bath with scented candles burning, or curl up with a good book and just relax. Using an
hour each day for something you enjoy will help you unwind, and ensure that your emotional stress does

not build up to the critical point. All of these stress relief tips can help you prevent and lower your

emotional stress, so you stay emotionally stable and physically healthy.

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How
      Food
      Affects
      Your
      Mind
      Body
      Spirit
 
by Janice Polansky, MS, MBA
Have you noticed the central role food plays in your life? From the time we are born, we develop a deep
association linking food with emotions. From infants whose cries are answered with either their mother's
breast or a bottle, we move through life linking food to emotions. We celebrate holidays, weddings,
graduations, and promotions with food. We drown our sorrows, have power lunches, and look for
aphrodisiac food to boost our sexual appeal. And who can forget the tears and lust created by food in the
movie "Like Water For Chocolate"? We use food to express, suppress, and deal with love and many other
emotions. 
Is there any wonder we have so many mixed feelings about food? And experience so many extremes with
food, including cravings, dieting, stuffing, fasting, gorging, starving, and the bingeing/purging of
anorexia.  Advertising barrages us with models and messages of how to achieve beauty and have a
desirable figure and physique to be appealing and loved by women staying thin and men beefing up. We
evaluate ourselves and base our feelings about ourselves on whether we control food - or feel controlled
by our food cravings. Do we eat to live, live to eat, or eat as a way of coping with life?
Concerns about physical health, heart disease and cancer have increased awareness of the nutrients in our
food - especially cholesterol, saturated fat, antioxidant vitamins - and the benefits of eating more of some
foods and less of other foods. Yet in reality, the way America eats has changed little in recent years.
Americans still use coffee to boost their energy and get started in the morning, and fast food burgers,
fries, pizza, shakes and soft drinks to support busy, stress filled lives. We have too little time for ourselves
or our loved ones, let alone time to cook - or stop and think, until we get sick.
How do you feel about the food you eat? In addition to these physical results that we try to achieve, food
affects us in many mental, emotional, and spiritual ways which most people aren't aware of and don't
connect the results with the food they eat. Have you considered whether your food is supporting you and
how food affects your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health? Are you controlled by food,
eating out of habit, or consciously eating to create the life you want? Let's explore how food affects you
and your health - and how conscious eating can support your healing process and your creation of health
and a dynamic, joyous life filled with energy and love. 

 Food is Life

Food provides us with more than the sum of its nutrients - protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, and
minerals.  Food is condensed and transformed energy. Eating is a way to extract life sustaining energy
from food. When you eat, you process and absorb the forces of nature stored in your food. For example,
plants store light through photosynthesis. Eating food releases the energies and nutrients stored in food
for your body to absorb.  In assimilating your food, the physical and energetic forces of your food interact
with you on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels - and in turn determine your health and the
quality of your life.
What you choose to eat determines the quality of the nutrients and energy that you bring into your body. 
We are affected quite differently by fresh, whole, live, organic foods compared to processed foods
containing the chemicals of artificial colors and flavors, preservatives, pesticides, hormones, and
antibiotics. Think of the vital energy you get from organic foods which have either been freshly harvested
or which can create a plant from the whole grain or legume when planted. In comparison, consider the
energy you get in eating meat and processed foods which also give you pesticides, hormones, antibiotics,
preservatives, and artificial flavors and colors. 
In addition to digesting the food, our liver and kidneys must work harder to process all these chemicals in
meat and processed food compared to organic food. Furthermore, when you eat meat, you take in the
animal's energy, including the energy of how it was raised and the fear and trauma from being
slaughtered.

The American Diet

 Other common foods not only bring you poor quality energy, but deplete instead of provide nutrients,
resulting in many people who are malnourished while being overweight. Sugar, caffeine, white flour, and
artificial and junk food are illusions of real food with little nutritional value that bring artificial energy
into your body. Sugar, caffeine, and stress contribute to the hypoglycemia and adrenal exhaustion that
occurs in 70-90% of individuals in the United States. Sugar and caffeine create repeated temporary bursts
followed by crashes in your energy as your body tries to handle the extreme effects of these foods on your
blood sugar, pancreas, and adrenal glands. Your energy is also drained in eating refined white sugar and
white flour because they are devoid of minerals, vitamins, fiber, and water - they take these from your
body instead of giving you any nutrients.
The World Health Organization found our standard American diet results in dramatic increases of chronic
and degenerative disease when it is introduced into other countries. The excess sugar, salt, fat, and
protein, and lack of fiber, vitamins, and minerals of artificial, junk, and processed food are major
contributing factors in heart disease, cancer, diabetes, AIDS, and chronic fatigue. For example, due to
processing, white rice loses 70% of the nutrients in found in brown rice. In addition to lacking nutrients,
white flour affects your body differently than whole grains, raising your triglyceride levels and creating
imbalances and cravings. 
However the nutrients and energy of synthetic vitamin and mineral supplements that we use to try to
replace the nutrients lost in processed food are artificial, incomplete, and further tax your liver and
kidneys. Scientists are discovering these supplements lack other compounds found in natural foods that
work synergistically with identified minerals and vitamins to support your health. While supplements can
be more expedient on a short term basis in dealing with deficiencies, long term use can result in
imbalances and create cravings. The combination of nutritional supplements and processed foods does not
produce the same benefits as balanced eating of fresh, whole, natural, organic foods. 

Natural Food, Natural Energy

In comparison to this artificial energy, whole grains, legumes, vegetables, nuts, and seeds bring you
natural energy and a more complete and balanced set of nutrients. Compared to processed foods and
supplements, nature also provides more assimilable nutrients in whole, natural foods in the proportions
we need. For example, processed foods are high in sodium and low in potassium, the inverse of what your
body needs and what occurs naturally in whole foods. More specifically, 3.5 ounces of fresh raw peas
contain 316 mg of potassium and 2 mg of sodium; the same amount of canned peas contains up to 236 mg
sodium and 96 mg of potassium. 
Similarly it is not only the amount of calcium you eat but how well you can assimilate and retain the
calcium in your food. We are concerned about calcium due to osteoporosis. However osteoporosis occurs
most frequently in the United States and other countries which consume large amounts of dairy, animal
protein, and processed foods. Eating excess protein depletes calcium from your body. Calcium utilization
also depends on the proportion of calcium to phosphorus and magnesium. Dark leafy greens and whole
grains are abundant in the necessary magnesium. Compared to the calcium in dairy foods, your body can
better use the calcium in dark leafy greens and sea vegetables due to their more optimal phosphorus ratio.
Which nutrients and energy do you want to take into your body? 
Fresh food loses a vital life force the longer the time between harvest and eating. We see this in the
appearance of vegetables which turn limp and lose their color and flavor the longer they are stored.
Scientists have identified the chemical bonds and positioning of molecules that store energy in food
which change as food is stored and processed, causing the food to lose this its stored energy and life
force. We are just becoming aware that the comparative value of a certain food lies not only in its
nutrients but in the amount of light energy it brings to us which through photosynthesis. Which nutrients
and energy best support you? 

Other Food Energy

In addition to the physical nutrients and the energy of the food components, food also absorbs the energy
of the individuals who prepare, sell, distribute, harvest, and grow the food.  An IBM research scientist,
Marcel Vogel, demonstrated the effect of the energy of those in contact with the food.  His experiments
showed that food prepared with love not only tastes sweeter but actually changes the chemical structure
of the food. 
The amount and quality of available energy in food as well as its impact on your body also depend on the
equipment and techniques used to store, prepare, and cook the food.  For example, experiments published
in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet and other journals indicate microwave cooking
alters food which results in damage to our health.  A study published in The Lancet showed microwave
cooking causes structural, functional, and immunological changes in the body, and transforms certain
amino acids in food into toxins that damage the nervous system, liver, and kidneys.   A study published in
Raum & Zeit compared the impact of various cooking methods.  This study found food prepared in a
microwave oven resulted in changes in the blood indicative of an early pathogenic process similar to the
actual start of cancer. 
We are scientifically validating the impact of cooking methods on the energy contained in the food and its
nutritional content as well as the impact on your health.  Who provides and prepares your food and how
your food is stored, processed, and prepared can be just as important to your health as what you eat.
Besides these physical and energetic effects, food affects you emotionally and can trigger food cravings. 
In addition to eating food for nourishment and energy, we use food to cope with life.  We give food to
infants to comfort them and make them stop crying, even though hunger may not be the cause of their
tears.  Similarly you may also eat certain foods in an attempt to create a sense of comfort and security and
make up for voids in other parts of your life.  You may be using food to deal with feelings because you
can't understand the true message of those feelings, just as we misinterpret a baby's crying.  Or you may
eat and overeat to suppress your feelings, avoid painful aspects of your life, deaden and make yourself
numb. 
These ineffective, unconscious ways of dealing with feelings, stress, and life's crises and challenges can
result in food cravings that you can't control because you don't know how to interpret - or aren't ready to
hear - the underlying messages.  Being unable to control your food cravings can increase your feeling of
helplessness, increase your stress, and lower your self image and self esteem, making your life seem even
further out of your control.
However you may unknowingly be setting yourself up for food cravings due to imbalanced eating and
poor quality food.  Food cravings may have an emotional basis or be due to a lack of balance in the foods
you eat.  Your body has many internal mechanisms for creating balance and maintaining health.  If you
don't make wise choices that meet these internal needs for balance, you can set off cravings for food to
offset the imbalance. 
However your body can only choose food to create balance from what it knows is available, based on
what you eat on a regular basis.  If your diet consists mainly of junk and processed food, your body tries
to use junk and processed food to create balance, but this is like putting water in the gas tank of your car. 
It isn't good fuel and doesn't give good results. 
For example, you need carbohydrates to fuel your body.  If you are eating refined white sugar to meet this
need, your body absorbs and uses its simple carbohydrates too quickly, leaving you feeling tired instead
of energized.  You feel much better with the "high octane," long lasting, slow burning fuel of whole
grains.  Your body slowly breaks down the complex carbohydrates of whole grains.  This gives you long
lasting, even energy that doesn't disrupt your blood sugar levels. 
Whole grains also provide an abundance of vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber that result in you feeling
calm and being better able to handle stress.  However if you only eat refined white sugar and processed
grains in the form of flour in bread, pasta, and baked goods, your body can't tell you it prefers and feels
better with the carbohydrates and energy it receives from whole grains. 

Mental Energy
Food also affects you mentally by affecting your body's chemistry. For example, Prozac, the "feel good"
drug of choice in America, pools and increases the level of serotonin in the brain. Whole grains have a
similar impact of increasing the level of serotonin, resulting in a feeling of well being and being better
able to handle stress. Danger and stress trigger the flight or fight response in your body, raising your level
of adrenaline. Higher levels of dopamine, adrenaline, and its precursor, norepinephrine, can result in
increased aggressiveness. Eating meat also raises the levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in your
body. 
Similarly, other foods affect your memory and your ability to focus, think clearly, and relax.  There are
many ways in which foods you choose to eat effect you mentally, emotionally, and physically. 
Spiritual Energy
How does food affect your spirit? Your body's desire for food has its roots in your soul's need for spiritual
 

substance. Your attitudes and beliefs about yourself and what you eat determine the choices you make in
what you eat. As we grow spiritually, we often see our body as a temple in which our spirit dwells, and
we realize our connection with all living things. We want to be healthier in our thoughts and actions and
live in harmonious ways that align us with the spiritual truths and natural laws and ecology of our body,
our planet, and the universe. As we develop and evolve, we want to integrate our mind-body-spirit. How
can food support this evolution and help us to heal and develop mentally, emotionally and spiritually as
well as physically?

Harmony
Eating food appropriate to your needs is a means of extracting energy from your environment in a
 

harmonious way. It reflects the integration and totality of your ongoing harmony with yourself, the world,
the universal laws, and all of creation. As you evolve in body, mind, and spirit, your dietary needs
change. As you develop and mature emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, your sensitivity to your mind-
body-spirit response increases. You become more aware of the more subtle energies stored in your
food. What you eat is both the cause and effect of your awareness.
You may recognize that choosing natural foods brings you into harmony with nature and helps you to
heal and maintain your health. But how do you make this transition in the way you eat to realize your
desired benefits and results? To make this shift into harmony requires making a conscious decision to
change your lifestyle. Changing your way of eating to support your healing and development involves not
a single step, but is an ongoing process that becomes an integral part of your journey. 
You can best make stable and lasting changes in your way of eating through step by step changes in what
you eat and an increased understanding of the effect of the food on you. You develop awareness of your
own inner sensitivity and begin to observe your food choices without judgment. You learn to recognize
and understand the results of your choices. You begin to pay attention to your own inner messages and
how you feel after eating various foods. You become aware of a new world of natural foods - how they
look and taste, how to prepare them in tasty and appealing dishes, their benefits and healing properties.
You learn cooking techniques that enhance the healing energy of the food. You identify and determine the
specific effects of food and your way of eating on you - physically, mentally, emotionally, and
spiritually.  You sense which foods support you and make you feel better. You don't just respond to
external messages of what you should do for better health. Nor do you merely react unconsciously by
eating to meet your emotional needs or deal with stress. Instead you start to make conscious choices that
make you feel better and honor your spirit.
As you change the way you eat and become more in touch with and integrate your mind-body-spirit, your
cravings for various foods may disappear, change, or even develop. During this process of changing the
way you eat, you may face challenges as you deal with your self image and the emotions affecting your
food choices. You may go back to some your old ways of eating - until you feel ready to address the
underlying issues and emotions, see yourself more clearly, and bring in the healing light and energy of
natural foods.  These can be gestation periods where you rest, internally restructure, integrate, and prepare
for the next set of changes by marshaling your energy and awareness. 
Remember, this is your journey, to take at your own pace and in your own direction. You need to follow
your own inner guidance and honor, love, and respect yourself. Don't be critical or quick to harshly judge
yourself by perceiving a temporary return to your old way of eating as failure. Learn from your
experiences and understand why you made your choices so you can transform your life and health by
bringing more harmony, peace, and balance into your life. 
Healing Energy 
A healthy vegetarian diet can be a powerful aid to your development and healing process. Vegetables
bring the light and energy they absorb and store through photosynthesis into your body. Grains, legumes,
nuts, and seeds bring into your body the light, energy, and life force that can create a new living
plant. This way of eating creates a whole new experience and lightness in your body.
The energy of natural food changes the vibration of your nervous system so that it forces the lower
vibration, negative thoughts out of your system. The negative thoughts become incompatible with the
higher vibration of energy that begins to fill your body.  In this manner, the energy work of Reiki and
other healing energy modalities work synergistically with a healthy vegetarian diet to support your
development and healing process.
As you work with healing energy to release blocked energy in your body, you often release dense,
contracting, negative thoughts. Your body often stores negativity in excess fat as blocked energy. You
release this negative, stored energy from your body when you let go of the negativity of anger, fear, hate,
blame, and guilt.  You can support this movement and release with fresh, natural foods abundant in
healing energy. The light and vital energy of fresh, natural foods help you to face your life issues so you
can more easily release repressed emotions and thoughts from your mind and body. If you are ready to
handle it, the light and energy of a healthy vegetarian diet can also activate an equal inner light that
increases the strength of your inner spiritual light.
Healing and personal development involves changing your attitudes and beliefs about yourself and what
you bring into your life to create and sustain your health and well being. You learn how to eat and live in
a healthy and harmonious way that aligns you with the natural laws and ecology of your body, our planet,
and the universe. These changes and shifts occur over time and are affected by the support you choose to
bring into your life. A solid support system is crucial for making successful, sustained, permanent
changes in the direction of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. 
As you experience more joy and positive ways of being, you may recognize areas of negativity in your
life that drain you and better understand what nourishes, satisfies, and supports you. You may decide to
restructure your life and change your perspective, behavior, relationships, and situations so you
experience life differently.  You learn to honor yourself and support your growth by choosing food,
relationships, experiences, thoughts, and behavior that nourish and heal your body. 
You transform your body into a temple in which your spirit can live with integrity, in harmony with your
mind and body. It is not only a matter of intellectually knowing what you should or shouldn't eat. It's a
question of how you want and choose to live. How do you deal with your emotions? How developed,
evolved, and integrated is your mind-body-spirit? They need to work in harmony to support you and
enable you to consciously make healthy choices. Are you making conscious choices about how you are
living? Are you aware of the impact of these choices? 

Janice Polansky, MBA, MS, works with individuals who want to live a joyful, effective, peaceful life
with optimum health. She helps individuals to make healthier food and lifestyle choices and increase self
awareness to create healthier, more balanced, and fulfilling lives. Jan combines holistic, natural, Oriental
understandings with Western, scientific approaches to health and healing to bring you a unique
perspective for understanding how to improve your health and life. Jan has a background in health,
natural foods, enzymes, herbs, energy medicine, macrobiotics, essential oils and Oriental medicine. She is
certified in enzyme therapy with the Loomis Institute and has studied at the Natural Gourmet Institute for
Food and Healing, Himalayan Institute, Vega Center, Kushi Institute and Ann Wigmore Institute. She has
a bachelor degree in chemistry and masters degrees in systems analysis and business from Carnegie
Mellon University. Janice is a naturopath, Reiki master, and founder of Personal Health Dynamics. Jan
provides seminars and consultations based on integrative medicine for individuals and companies to
support to a healthier life and way of eating. For information, contact Personal Health Dynamics at 412-
492-0767 or Jan@PersonalHealthDynamics.com.

What is good emotional health?

People who have good emotional health are aware of their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. They have
learned healthy ways to cope with the stress and problems that are a normal part of life. They feel good
about themselves and have healthy relationships.

However, many things that happen in your life can disrupt your emotional health and lead to strong
feelings of sadness, stress or anxiety. These things include:

 Being laid off from your job

 Having a child leave or return home
 Dealing with the death of a loved one
 Getting divorced or married
 Suffering an illness or an injury
 Getting a job promotion
 Experiencing money problems
 Moving to a new home
 Having a baby

“Good” changes can be just as stressful as “bad” changes.

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How can my emotions affect my health?

Your body responds to the way you think, feel and act. This is often called the “mind/body connection.”
When you are stressed, anxious or upset, your body tries to tell you that something isn’t right. For
example, high blood pressure or a stomach ulcer might develop after a particularly stressful event, such
as the death of a loved one. The following can be physical signs that your emotional health is out of
balance:

 Back pain
 Change in appetite
 Chest pain
 Constipation or diarrhea
 Dry mouth
 Extreme tiredness
 General aches and pains
 Headaches
 High blood pressure
 Insomnia (trouble sleeping)
 Lightheadedness
 Palpitations (the feeling that your heart is racing)
 Sexual problems
  Shortness of breath
 Stiff neck
 Sweating
 Upset stomach
 Weight gain or loss

Poor emotional health can weaken your body's immune system, making you more likely to get colds and
other infections during emotionally difficult times. Also, when you are feeling stressed, anxious or upset,
you may not take care of your health as well as you should. You may not feel like exercising, eating
nutritious foods or taking medicine that your doctor prescribes. Abuse of alcohol, tobacco or other drugs
may also be a sign of poor emotional health.

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Why does my doctor need to know about my emotions?

You may not be used to talking to your doctor about your feelings or problems in your personal life. But
remember, he or she can’t always tell that you’re feeling stressed, anxious or upset just by looking at you.
It’s important to be honest with your doctor if you are having these feelings. 

First, he or she will need to make sure that other health problems aren’t causing your physical symptoms.
If your symptoms aren’t caused by other health problems, you and your doctor can address the emotional
causes of your symptoms. Your doctor may suggest ways to treat your physical symptoms while you work
together to improve your emotional health.

If your negative feelings don’t go away and are so strong that they keep you from enjoying life, it’s
especially important for you to talk to your doctor. You may have what doctors call “major depression.”
Depression is a medical illness that can be treated with individualized counseling, medicine or with both.

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How can I improve my emotional health?

First, try to recognize your emotions and understand why you are having them. Sorting out the causes of
sadness, stress and anxiety in your life can help you manage your emotional health. The following are
some other helpful tips.

Express your feelings in appropriate ways. If feelings of stress, sadness or anxiety are causing
physical problems, keeping these feelings inside can make you feel worse. It’s OK to let your loved ones
know when something is bothering you. However, keep in mind that your family and friends may not be
able to help you deal with your feelings appropriately. At these times, ask someone outside the situation--
such as your family doctor, a counselor or a religious advisor--for advice and support to help you improve
your emotional health.

Live a balanced life. Try not to obsess about the problems at work, school or home that lead to negative
feelings. This doesn’t mean you have to pretend to be happy when you feel stressed, anxious or upset.
It’s important to deal with these negative feelings, but try to focus on the positive things in your life too.
You may want to use a journal to keep track of things that make you feel happy or peaceful. Some
research has shown that having a positive outlook can improve your quality of life and give your health a
boost. You may also need to find ways to let go of some things in your life that make you feel stressed
and overwhelmed. Make time for things you enjoy.

Develop resilience. People with resilience are able to cope with stress in a healthy way. Resilience can
be learned and strengthened with different strategies. These include having social support, keeping a
positive view of yourself, accepting change and keeping things in perspective. 

Calm your mind and body. Relaxation methods, such as meditation, are useful ways to bring your
emotions into balance. Meditation is a form of guided thought. It can take many forms. For example, you
may do it by exercising, stretching or breathing deeply. Ask your family doctor for advice about relaxation
methods.

Take care of yourself. To have good emotional health, it’s important to take care of your body by having
a regular routine for eating healthy meals, getting enough sleep and exercising to relieve pent-up tension.
Avoid overeating and don’t abuse drugs or alcohol. Using drugs or alcohol just causes other problems,
such as family and health problems.

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More Information

Healthy Living

 Coping With Stress

 Your Emotional Health
 Spirituality and Health
 For Teens: Dealing With Stress
 Teens & Emotional Health
 Caregiver Stress
 For Kids: The Story on Stress
 Seasonal Affective Disorder
 Insomnia: How to Get a Good Night's Sleep
 Cognitive Therapy
 Grieving: Facing Illness, Death and Other Losses