An emotion is not a feeling, and a mood is something different too. Most people don’t understand the difference.
An emotion can be thought of as just an ‘electro-chemical spark’ in the brain. Yet it is responsible for so much! The emotion sends a signal down the brain stem into the central and peripheral nervous systems and creates real physical changes in our body. Breathing and heart beat adjusts, blood is directed, there is vascular constriction and deconstriction and a host of hormonal effects happen. There are nerve endings around our visceral organs, and these nerve endings detect all this ‘movement’ in the body. We can become aware of these, as these are our ‘feelings’.
So an emotion is not a feeling, an emotion brings on a feeling. That feeling is real, tangible, physical changes in the body. For interest, the overall experience of emotion that includes cognition, emotion and feelings we can call ‘mood’.
Positive emotions have the effect of relaxing and opening up our body. Negative emotions add tension and close our bodies off. Our bodies are generally working harder with negative emotions present, with increased blood pressure, heart and lungs and vascular system working harder, and our muscles more tense. You can think of the effect of having negative emotions on your body as though you are trying to drive with the brakes on. You make a lot of noise and work harder to get anywhere.
Any disease, illness or even physical condition has an emotional element to it. A skilled hypnotherapist can target the negative emotions so people are better placed to live with any conditions that they may have. We can help them ‘feel better’ about themselves, or be less ‘burdened’, and help them start to pay attention to the more important things in life – we can help them be happier. Yet there are other benefits of releasing negative emotions too.
It has long been known from research that negative emotions supress our immune system, and positive emotions bolster the immune system. The reason is due to the hormonal and physical reactions to the emotions. So if you are suffering from disease or illness releasing negative emotions won’t just help you feel better – it will also help you fight the condition by bolstering your immune system.
Be aware of your emotions if you have an illness, disease, or physical condition. If you have negative emotions then let them go – they aren’t helping, they are detracting. If you can’t let them go then I suggest that you go and see someone who is suitably experienced with helping people let go of emotions such as a Hypnotherapist, Counsellor, Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, or Psychologist.
It is much healthier to live life without carrying the burden of negative emotions.
I wanted to find a picture showing positive emotion to accompany this post. So why not one of me looking a little, er, ‘mad’! Here’s a picture of me and a friend halfway during the very gruelling Grim 8 race – an 8.5mile mud run. We’re loving every minute of it!
You can find out more about me on my website, www.garyturner.co.uk. Thanks!
Gary Turner
Gary ‘Smiler’ Turner brings unique skills to talkhealth. He has been World Champion thirteen times in his sports career – he fully understands physical and mental performance, from both the practical and academic standpoints. In his Hypnotherapy practice Gary works with a diverse range of clients who present issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety issues, eating disorders and weight issues, addictions, and a host of illnesses, diseases and physical conditions. Gary takes an evidence-based approach to his work. He is a sought after speaker and delivers workshops, seminars and presentations including having presented at the National Hypnotism Conference. As a Personal Trainer Gary is sought after by professional athletes and those who want to be ‘fit for life’. Gary is skilled with working with medical conditions and disabled. As examples he has taught a Paralympion to be a kickboxer despite being in a wheelchair, a client with neurological damage to his arm to be medal winning grappler, and successfully works with clients with prosthetic limbs. In his role as a Performance Expert Gary works with individuals, teams and businesses to help them achieve optimum performance. He often works with the British Army and has been a Subject Matter Expert on the re-writing of ‘Combat PT’ – the product delivered by Army PTI’s. He has also worked with many British Army sports teams such as the Judo, Boxing, and Kayak teams. Gary has a thirst for knowledge and studies 2-6hrs every day, on such diverse topics as psychology, neuroscience, physiology, nutrition and more. This will help to bring a rounded opinions and advice to talkhealth. Gary’s first book ‘No Worries’, a book to help people remove their anxiety, is now available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. In his personal life Gary enjoys working with his huskies as a team, competing in ultra-marathons, and still trains at his chosen sports.
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I strongly believe that what goes on in the mind can have a negative or positive impact on all aspects of your life including health. Being positive of mind must help in living day to day with illness and health issues.
on July 8, 2013 at 9:30 am DeborahThe psychological aspect of a patients health and well being is often overlooked by Drs and surgeons mainly because they are very busy and specialise in fixing the body. I recently had a kidney transplant and I had a number of concerns (what it goes wrong, what if the kidney doesn’t work, what if,what if) so I decided to see a hypnotherapist to see if they could help with the concerns I was having.
on July 8, 2013 at 10:14 am Greg ParkI made an appointment with a hypnotherapist (it turned out to be Gary Turner) because he was closest and highly recommend.
I had 3 sessions with Gary and at each session he addressed the different aspects of the operation (before the operation, during, and recovery) and my state of mind totally changed. I was very relaxed even even when they were giving me the anaesthetic. When I woke up I was up and about and acting like most patients do 3 days after the operation not immediately after, the DRs commented on the fact that I had minimal blood loss during the operation (this is an area Gary and I worked on) the on my first clinic appointment the consultant remarked that my scar was healing “remarkably” quickly this was another area Gary worked on.
While the medical staff look after the physical side of everything the hypnotherapist I worked with made sure I was in the best possible mental shape and focused on the worries and concerns that the consultants and surgeons weren’t able to deal with
If you are going through an illness or disease of any description I would recommend talking to someone about it because the mental aspect of being sick is very often overlooked and if it is addressed it can help with all sorts of aspects some you might not of thought of initially.