Expressing your emotions effectively is very good for your health.
People who bottle up their feelings are at least a third more likely to die young than those who regularly express what they’re feeling and thinking.
The good news is that you can be proactive and not only reverse the trend but also completely rewire yourself towards affirmative behaviour and long term positive health outcomes. This is a major aspect of our work at Global Health.
When researchers looked at specific causes of death they discovered that the risks increased by 70 per cent for cancer and 47 per cent for heart disease.
This has been well known in Holistic Health circles for years and now a study by experts at the School of Public Health, Harvard and the University of Rochester showed the risk of premature death from all causes increases by
about 35 per cent among those who fail to express how they feel.
Findings, published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, suggested that the consequences of bottling up emotions are more serious than previously thought.
Researchers studied 729 people, who signed up to a health survey in 1996 with an average age of 44.
The survey was repeated 12 years later, by which time 111 people had died – mostly from heart disease, 37 or cancer, 34.
They found that death rates were highest among those most likely to bottle up their anger rather than let people know what they were feeling or thinking.
Questions were designed to assess how much the participants suppressed their emotions.
These included agreeing or disagreeing; with statements such as “I try to be pleasant so that others won’t get upset” or “When I’m angry I let people know” rated on a scale of one to five.
Experience at Global Health based on recent scientific research and clinical results is that the waters of our body which comprise 70%-90% of our cellular composition bottle up emotional signatures or memories, just as water stores or dilutes chemicals such as salts or sugars. Masaru Emoto has been involved with extensive research on this. This hardens or acidifies the water in our body and reduces the vital flow of oxygen into our cells as well as our ability to eliminate toxins.
Repeated suppression of feelings builds up and aggregates like a chemical would inside our cells, or like a river stagnating, which can disturb the subtle balances of our hormones and cellular functions.
People often turn to alcohol, illicit or prescribed drugs, cigarettes or junk food to help them cope with their hidden feelings, which of course generally only masks the problems.
Bottling up negative thoughts disrupts the hormone balance in the body, raising the risk of diseases linked with cellular damage, such as heart complaints and cancer.
The researchers stressed that the number of deaths in the study was small and that further investigations are needed. Our extensive experience at Global Health Clinic confirms this research
“These findings reveal significant associations between higher levels of emotional suppression and mortality,” the scientists reported.
“The results suggest emotion suppression warrants more detailed investigation as a possible mortality risk.”
Previous studies suggested that getting angry was good for you because it actually reduced the negative impact of stress.
Scientists at the University of Valencia in Spain found that getting angry increased blood flow to the left frontal region of the brain, which is involved in experiencing positive emotions and also triggers “closeness”.
The right side of the brain is more related to negative emotions and can provoke withdrawal, fear and sadness.
London-based business psychologist Voula Grand said: “It has long been thought that cancers are partly the result of
suppressed emotions.
“Although people learn to hide their feelings at a very early age, they can still be taught to express them later in life. It takes a lot of energy and effort but it can be done.”
The old Jesuit theme of give me the child to the age of 7 and I give you the man was based on these principles of informing habits, emotional responses and beliefs which can provide warranted behavioural outcomes.
Global Health features recently developed Mind Body systems like Psyche k, Theta Healing, Emotional peace processes, BodyTalk, EFT, Multiple Brain Therapy and Holographic Kinetics are very effective at helping realign our emotional response patterns, as are the more traditional approaches we use like motivational counselling, NLP and hypnotherapy or even the use of mantra and repetitive affirmations.
John Coombs Clinic Director Global Health.