It is refreshing to see more health care experts, writers and speakers emphasize the importance of the mind’s response to stress just as much as they are emphasizing a body’s response to food. Today, it’s not uncommon to hear the topic of stress reduction and mental attitudes being emphasized just as much as healthy food choices when it comes to promoting health and well-being.

Acute or prolonged stress cannot only negatively impact health; it can be injurious to mental clarity, mood and overall quality of life.   A habit of unhealthy stress responses over time can create mindsets that slowly counteract the benefits of good nutrition. An unhealthy mindset is particularly dangerous because you may not necessarily realize that you have it.

Unbeknownst to you, that negative mindset may be undermining most of your health routines, lowering your immune system, compromising your digestion and damaging your nervous system.

Below are a few examples of unhealthy mindsets that may significantly decrease energy and momentum and subsequently slow the progression of health and well-being:

• “Worry” – “Perfectionism” – “Guilt” – “Insufficiency – (I’m not enough)”
•  “Isolationism” – “I’m bored – (lack of purpose)” – “Revenge”-
• “Unforgiveness”– “Co-dependency – (What does he/she think of me)” –“Fear”

These are just a few mindsets that, if shifted to healthier ones, can make a difference in well-being and the rate at which you become healthier.  Happiness and hope; gratitude and grace can be just as important as antioxidants and vitamins, green drinks and vegetables. Mental well-being can not be ignored when it comes to recovering vitality. In the next blog, I will give you an example of how attention to mindset and stress response made a profound difference for a client.

Wisdom Source: All the days of the afflicted are bad, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast – Proverbs 15:15