Have you ever been embarrassed and your cheeks turned red? When you went on your first date, did your hands get sweaty? Or maybe you gave a presentation at work and were so nervous that your stomach hurt, your heart was racing, or your mouth became dry. These are familiar examples of how your thoughts—and subsequent emotions—cause physical changes in your body. But did you know that your emotions have so much control over your biology they can make you sick or heal you?
We’ve all heard that chronic stress is unhealthy. Even Western medicine acknowledges that stress is a major cause or contributor to 90 percent of diseases. Yet most of us downplay the role of emotions in both disease and wellness. That’s partly because we’re looking for physical answers to our seemingly physical problems. But it’s also partly because most of us don’t actually believe that emotions alone are capable of eliciting a full-blown disease. I didn’t understand the significance of emotions either until recently. I’d like to share my mom’s story.
