#1566 Thinking Yourself Sick - Harps

but a reasonably good grasp of the human condition. So the mind stuff, the body stuff, the emotional stuff, the behavioral stuff, while not regarding myself on any level as a guru. And it is with that disclaimer that I tentatively open the conversational door today on this topic and what I want to talk to you about because you are an know that anyway, but is about the idea

of thinking yourself sick. So I'm going to be exploring the relationship between thought, what happens in our head, our stories, our ideas good or bad, negative or positive, our self talk, our rumination, our self doubt, our self loathing, all of those things and the impact that that non physical stuff, that internal cognitive stuff can have on our very real physiology, our body. So the relationship between what we think and what those thoughts can produce, for better or worse in

our body is the door that I'm opening. So for this episode, I'm just sharing my thoughts, experiences, and insights into an area of the human experience that genuinely excites me and fascinates me. I'm eighty percent student, twenty percent teacher, and so this is me. This conversation is me sharing with you what I'm learning as I go. And none of this is intended to be personal advice. That's not a call to action. It's not me telling you asking

you to do something. It's not an individual prescription. As I always say, It's just me thinking out loud. So if I say something that resonates with you, then you might you might choose to look into it. You might choose to do some research. You might choose to jump online or read a book or listen to some more conversations. Or you might choose to take that idea or thought or concept or strategy or piece of information that I shared for a bit of a test drive and see

what happens. So I decided to record a podcast called Thinking Yourself Sick in an attempt to unpack the very real and powerful, but largely unknown and undiscussed in terms of the general public anyway, relationship that exists between negative

thinking and our body. And it's I mean, it's been my experience, my observation, my research that chronic negative thinking might just be, I say, might one of the leading but undetected drivers of or in science, we might say psychological or physiological pathways too, physical dysfunction, disease, and disaster. In other words, there is and can be a very real correlation between toxic thinking and toxic outcomes in our body.

And while it's pretty well established that thoughts have the power to heal or at least again as positively influence health outcomes, I've interviewed a bunch of people on this show, world class academics and researchers, you know, Professor Jeffrey Reticker from Harvard Medical School. We've spoken about spontaneous healing, the placebo effect, the potential healing capacity of thought. That shit's

so exciting, isn't it? But I guess what's not discussed so much is the potentially disastrous physical health outcomes or consequences of ongoing negative like chronic negative thinking, rumination, obsession, those pessimistic, dark kind of holes that we dig for ourselves cognitively overthinking, not not thinking a fair bit, not as in, you know, like we can have busy, a busy mind. Sometimes I have a busy mind, but it's excited,

it's creative. But when I talk about overthinking in this capacity, I'm talking about that rumination, that doom and gloom storytelling, that potentially that self loathing, that immersing ourselves in problems that don't actually exist, problems that we think might arise in the future, but in the day, and despite the fact that those problems don't exist and we know through research about ninety one or two percent of the time

never actually arise. Despite the fact that most of those things won't happen in the future, we are trapped in that negative rumination about future potential problems in the moment, and despite the fact that those problems are not real. The consequence of the rumination, the overthinking, the doom and gloom, the pessimism, the consequences of that negative thinking are very real.

So literally, while there is no practical problem in the future, we create a literal physiological problem in the now quite often as as as a byproduct, I should say, of what is happening in that operating center that lives between our ears. So for me, I really believe a greater knowledge, greater awareness, and greater understanding and conversation about this is crucial because if we can and again this is not going to enlighten the world, but this is just for me.

This is opening the door on a conversation that if we can begin to realize and consider the fact that our thinking has a consequence in our body, for better or worse, and we can understand that my toxic thoughts can lead to toxic outcomes with my physiology, then I can start to at least bring that awareness and that recognition into my life, into my choices. You know, when I feel myself sitting down on a couch and ruminating or overthinking, I can make a conscious decision to get

up off the couch and focus on something else. And when I focus on something else, even if it's making a cup of tea or making dinner, or if it's putting on my runners and going for as I often do, I put on my runners. In fact, last night I got home from the gym. Don't ask me why, I felt kind of a bit blah, which I don't often, but I felt a bit mentally blah, even though I'd been to the gym. But what I haven't done for a couple of weeks is I haven't run. So I

put on my runners. I went and ran like a crazy person for about two k's like ten minute quickish for my sixty year old body. Run got back, I focused, I shifted my focused on that thing that I was are starting to go down that kind of negative pathway on and I just got into my body. I got into the run. I got back, and not only had I shifted my focus and what was happening in my mind, which is a good thing, but it also shifted the biochemistry of my brain. Now I was producing some dopamine.

Now I was producing some endorphins, and now I was doing something good for my body. So let's talk about Let's talk about thinking. So thinking is the solution and thinking is the problem, depending on where we're at on the day. And as you've heard me talk many times about the idea of thinking about how we think, and we call that metacognition. Yes, you've heard me say that

a thousand times. But I think it's really important to bring our attention to what is happening in our mind, good or bad, and to as much as we can try to open the awareness door on what am I thinking? Why do I think this way? Where did this kind of thinking good or bad come from? Where do my beliefs come from? Did I choose my beliefs, this negative belief, this self limiting belief, this toxic kind of self talk that I have? Where did all of this kind of

thinking come from? Can I change my thinking? How do I change my thinking? And So if we know that thinking can be the cause of sickness, and it can, and I'll explain physiologically how, but if we know that thinking can be the root of all kinds of illness and physiological dysfunction and pain and suffering and reduced quality of life, which it can, then it's in our interests to really start to think about how we think and how we might make ourselves sick or well. So thinking

happens NonStop, doesn't it. So A lot of people wheel out this figure that we have about sixty or seventy thousand thoughts a day, and the truth is will the truth is, as I understand it, we don't know how many thoughts we have, And I think that's I think

that's an exaggeration. There's been some research that was done in Canada a few years ago where they watched where they analyzed people's brains over an extended period of time while they were doing things, focusing on things, and they kind of ascertained that it's maybe closer to the ten twelve thousand thoughts per day. But when you think about thinking unintended, like thinking happens because of us conscious thought. Oh I am thinking about what I'm going to have

for dinner. I'm going to have some chicken and veggies and rice wet. I'll get the chicken wear it or get the veggies wet, or get the rice. What am I going to put with it? Am I going to have a source? What am I going to How much do I want? How am I going to Am I going to use a wock? Am I going to use how am I going to put? You know? Conscious thought? Now I'm hungry. I shouldn't have given that example conscious thought.

So thinking happens intentionally, and thinking happens unconsciously, and that is when we think about Like right now, I am thinking about what I am saying to you, So my prefrontal cortex is focusing on the words and making sense and trying to build a level of connection. So I am thinking critically, I am consciously forming my words to build relationship, understanding, insight with you in this moment. But also subconsciously, I know that I've kind of been talken

for about ten minutes. I know that I'm aware of the temperature in the room. I'm subconsciously aware of the light coming through the window up to my right, and the trees that are kind of dancing in the wind. Right. All of these things can coexist, but I can't focus on two things at once. My mind can only my conscious mind can only pay absolute specific attention to focus on one thing at a time. And that's a hint,

isn't it. That's a hint right there, for being able to redirect our thoughts or do a left turn with our mind when we're starting to go down a particular negative path of thought. That when I get up out of the chair, as I spoke about before, and now I now go and invest my self mind, body, emotions in a task or something different. Then I take myself out of that place, or I get off that road that I was heading down. So your mind like my mind, and some of these are not new concepts for you,

but let's just just revisit it. Your mind, my mind, our minds. They are the control rooms for our life. My mind is my data processing center. My mind is the window through which I view and analyze and understand and process the world around me. It's where I figure out when I meet someone if I trust them or don't trust them. And I'm doing all this in real time and quickly, and often not even aware of it. So the role of our mind is to make sense

of things. It is to decode and interpret and tell stories about and give power and meaning and significance and influence to the goings on of our world, in other words, our physical world. So there's the stuff that's going on around you, let me be more specific, the stuff that you're aware of that's going on around you, and then there's your story about it. So there's the thing that's happening,

and then there's your story. And interestingly, your story has much more impact on your body and emotional system than the actual thing. Like, if something bad happens in front of you, something scary happens in front of you, which we might broadly consider most of us would consider to be scary, but you don't think it's scary, you think it's amusing. Then your physiological and emotional and psychological response will be one of curiosity and amusement rather than one

of anxiety or panic. Right, because you weren't scared, the ten other people next to you were scared. Their blood pressure went up, their heart rate went up, they started producing adrenaline and cortisole, and they got stress, and their body believed their story, and their story was this, this is a problem. I am in trouble, I am in danger. You, you standing right next to them, told yourself a different story. And because of your different story that you believed you

had a different experience. Now, this is not a possibility, This is a certainty. If you're not scared of something, even if you should be, you're not going to have a fear response. Even if you're in a situation where logically the rest of us would go, what are you doing? Get out of there? But you have no fear, then you're in no hurry to get out of there. And so this speaks to the fact that our mind, our

beliefs have a very real consequence in our body. Your mind, your thoughts, they are on a personal level, they are your reality creators. And when you're your mind believes something,

then your body believes that something. So careful what you believe, because if your body believes it, then it's going to respond according So your immune system, your nervous system, your cardiovascular system, your muscular system, your endocrime system, your gut bio Did I say nervous system, Not sure, all the systems. So careful what you believe. I think one of the

biggest challenges for us is to manage our mind. I think of all the things that we think about and talk about, you know, managing money, managing lifestyle, you know, looking after our body, all of that kind of practical life stuff, which and all of those things are important, but think about how many of those things are in some way dependent on or affected by what's happening in our mind. Like, if I can't manage my mind, I

can't be great at making decisions. If I can't manage my mind, then I'm not going to be a great problem solver or conversationalist or conflict resolver or relationship builder or listener. If I can't manage my mind, I'm not going to be a great employee or boss or leader or manager or academic. If I can't manage my mind, then I'm probably going to have some very real and dire consequences in my body. And this is not something to panic about. This is something to consider, you know.

So many Eastern philosophies talk about the notion of minding your mind and the power of thought for good and bad, and being able to control your mind, or perhaps maybe a better perspective is to coh exist in harmony with your mind, because your mind is not you and you are not it, but you have one, just like your body is not you, and you are not your body,

and you're not your thoughts your thoughts. Kind of there's you and there's your thoughts, and while you might be the creator and driver of those thoughts, they're still not you. They're they're just constructs that can prove to be you know, powerful or inert, for good or bad, depending on how much you believe those thoughts. Like you might have a thought like ah, you know that guy over there doesn't like me at all, and you go, Then all of a sudden, you have awareness and you go, you know what,

we haven't even spoken. It's like he kind of glanced at me, and I'm being an idiot, and you realize you're just being an idiot, and you realize that that guy probably actually has no opinion of you, So catastrophe averted.

On the other hand, you think the guy on the other side of the road kind of sideways glances at you, and now you start to tell your self and story and that story gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and then in five minutes you're now in a state of anxiety and panic because clearly it's going to come over

pretty soon and kill you right now. This is kind of funny and kind of silly, but it's kind of common and for some people, you know, these these uncontrolled thoughts, unregulated, disregulated thoughts lead to consequences that can be catastrophic in terms of you know, obviously physical health, but also mental and emotional health. So we know that thoughts create emotional responses, but we also know that emotions give rise to thought. Thoughts create emotions. So if I think I'm in trouble,

the emotional response will be fear. And if, for example, I watch something and I'm watching a movie and an emotion rises and that is sadness, well that's going to stimulate or that's going to influence how I think in that moment. I might think, oh my god, life's unfair. I might think, I might think something that takes me

down another negative path. So I'm talking here with emotions and thoughts about a bi directional relationship which creates a feedback loop with thoughts and emotions continuously influencing each other.

So the potential link between worry, negative thinking, fear, anxiety, overthinking, distress, and physical disease, it's been something that's been researched quite a lot, but not as much as a lot of other things, to be honest, But it's been researched in the space of you know, psychology and medicine and neuroscience. But to be honest, the interplay between mental and physical health is kind of complex and it involves like numerous biological, psychological,

and sociological factors. I'm going to try and keep that, you know, as understandable as possible, all right, So let's start by looking at some of the biological mechanisms that are impacted by worry, or in more general terms, negative thinking, fearful thinking, all kind of in the same bucket. So let's look at stress response and immune function. So chronic worry activates the body's stress response system in particular, I think or are you ready? You don't need to remember this.

There'll be no test, but a thing called the hypothalamic petuitary a dreamal axis or the HPA access. And we know that prolonged while we done. But I'm telling you, we know that prolonged activation of this axis, the HbA access, leads to a sustained release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. By the way, we don't want cortisole floating around our system on a regular basis. I'll talk about

that more later. We know that elevated levels of these hormones can suppress immune function, has a direct impact on your immune system. It can make the constant kind of elevated levels of these things, adrenaline cortisol can make your body more acceptible, susceptible to infections, disease, and slower healing. Additionally, this kind of overthinking, this negative thinking, this this chronic stress.

Internal stress can lead to inflammation. Inflammation is a big risk factor for various diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and sadly, numerous cancers. So, to simplify what I just said, chronic worry or chronic negative thoughts negative thinking absolutely correlates. It might not we think it does, but absolutely correlates positively with a greater risk and incidents of a range

of illnesses, diseases, dysfunction, and poor health outcomes. Oh, even more simply, there's a direct relationship between negative thinking and illness. All right, So let's look at the nervous system. You

know what that is, specifically the autonomic nervous system. Negative thinking, So worry, rumination, self loathing, I hate me, my life, shit, I'm no good, I'm an impluster, done a bit of that myself, that whole kind of doom and gloom storytelling, that internal negative space that we create, that can also affect the autonomic nervous system, which regulates all the involuntary bodily stuff, all the functions like heart rate, digestion, respiration,

all that. And chronic anxiety, worry, overthinking, and fear based obsession often leads to an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system, favoring sympathetic over parasympathetic activity. That is your fight or flight's response, your fighter flight response, which you know what that is, that panic, that oh my god, that ready to take action that switches on twenty thirty forty times

a day, and that parasympathetic response. That fight or flight response is great when it's needed, like when there's a lion in your bloody office, or there's an intruder breaking into your house, or there's or you're in a fi fight, or there's an earthquake, or when there's something that requires

you to get in that elevated state. It's awesome, but it's complete shit for your body and your health if you are turning on that fight or flight response twenty times a day and that rumination, that negative thinking, especially when we turn up the volume on that, that's exactly what we're doing. And so this imbalance, this overreaction, this over supply of specifically cortisol, can contribute to things like hype tension, high blood pressure, gastro intestinal disorders, you know,

gut health stuff, and chronic pain. I found that interesting when I realized that worry, that self created psychological and emotional prisons that we build for ourselves that we live in actually can result in real, genuine increases in physical

pain and also lead to cognitive impairments. So when we are consistently or regularly regularly creating a stress response or that putting ourselves in that state, that mental state, we can see impairment in memory, concentration, and decision making due to detrimental effects on the brain or areas specifically like

hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. So also keep in mind that prolonged activation of the fight or flight response is linked to the development and exacerbation of mental health issues that are really you know what we're constantly talking about now, anxiety and depression and the like. So that you know when we are when we are ruminating, when we're overthinking, we are turning up, we are literally creating more anxiety ourselves.

So anxiety is a bigger episode than this. But anxiety is the psychological, emotional, and physiological consequence of and sometimes genetic consequence of a bunch of variables. But what we do know is that we can, for one of a more science y term, we can turn up the volume on our depression and our anxiety, by ruminating, by overthinking, by focusing on things that we can't change, by being the problem person not the solution person. This is not

self loathing, this awareness. This is just awareness. So there's no criticism or judgment in that. Like, we've all had this experience where we think about something, we worry about something that doesn't turn out to be true. I mentioned this before. We worry about something potentially happening, and even though it's not happening, now we worry about it and a few minutes later, we are now stressed, we are now anxious. Our body is now in a fight or

flight kind of state. And our body is in that state not because it's required by the situation, because right now the situation is fine, but our body is in that state as a byproduct of our thinking about what could happen. And again, just awareness. So that'll do for the minute. That'll do for the biological mechanisms for now. So let's take a look at some of the what

do we call them. Let's take a look at I guess, some of the psychological pathways that might lead to poor health outcome, sickness, dysfunction, disease, you know, immune system suppression, and even worst case scenario, early death. So let's look at health behaviors. So people who experience high levels of negative thinking worry often engage in unhealthy behaviors in order to cope. Right, So we worry, we overthink, we're in that negative space. And then so which is again no

criticism in this, just awareness. So one of the results of that for some people or many people in fact, is smoking, is drinking lots of booze, is numbing out with food, is recreational drugs, is physical inactivity, and so all of these things increase the risk of developing you know, chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, arthritis, cancer, and more generally obesity, which like it or not is

not is a problem. It's not nothing. So it's not in this case, it's not directly the thinking that will make the person sick, So there's no straight line there. It's not directly their thinking that will make them sick, but rather the choices that they make as a result of their thinking, and then the subsequent physical, destructive habits and behaviors that they embrace, which of course, are a byproduct of their choices slash thinking. So once again there

is a correlation there. So in short, often negative thinking equals negative choices equals negative behaviors equals negative physical outcomes or simply poor health. So it's a it's a cycle, it's a chain of events, I guess, But that chain of events starts without thinking. Also another when we're looking under the banner of I guess bio logical mechanisms that

are problematic. So I know a lot of you because I get a lot of messages, a lot of information through the comments and through DMS and all through also through emails. But shitty sleep, so poor sleep hygiene, poor sleep quality, sleep disturbances, so negative thinking, that toxic thinking, you know, anxiety, ruminations, all that stuff is commonly associated with,

for one of better terms, shit sleep. And that can be you know, anything from kind of slightly disregulated sleep, not very good sleep quality right through to I can't

fucking sleep in some now. So there's no surprise for me to tell you that inadequate sleeps been linked to a bunch of health issues, like you know, weakened immune system, metabolic disorders, increase susceptibility to chronic conditions like hypertension and diabetes, you know, and when you think about it, like when our body doesn't fully rest and recover, I mean that's why we sleep. Our body needs downtime, Our body needs to go offline, our brain needs to switch off, you know.

That is the time where all our hormones recharge, like our cells repair and recover. And it's almost like we're heading the reset button on us every night. But when our thinking, our negative thinking, results in poor sleep, then we're opening a fucking Pandora's box on not just being irritable and grumpy mentally and emotionally because we're not sleeping,

but a potential myriad of physiological consequences. Again, it's not a direct correlation, like a straight line between thinking and sickness, but rather the sickness is a consequential effect of one's thinking. That is, negative thoughts leading to poor sleep, in turn leading to illness, in turn leading to a whole bunch

of shit for you and me and our body. All right, So let's park the psychological pathways to physical illness for a moment and take a look at some social and environmental factors that might influence one's mental state and in

turn physical states. So I've spoken many times on this show about the health benefits I guess yea, the health benefits and the impact that things like feeling loved, feeling valued, being connected, being seen, being heard, being wanted, being part of a group, you know, feeling like people care about us.

And I've also spoken about the numerous health risks of the opposite, you know, which is isolation, loneliness, social disconnection, and I guess in general terms like being a person that feels unseen, unwanted, unloved like you know, what's the point, and that, you know, leads to a potential raft of

you know, psychological, sociological, and emotional challenges. So we know that the presence or absence of social support and connection can significantly influence how a person thinks, for better or worse, And naturally that in a dialogue that thought, that way of thinking will have a very real impact, potentially will

have a very real impact on their physical health. So the bottom line is strong social networks provide emotional support, practical help, and I guess a sense of belonging which can somewhat buffer against the negative effects of the thinking that comes with that isolation. That separation, that disconnection, that

feeling unloved, unlanted, unneeded, all that stuff. You know, social isolation and loneliness can absolutely exacerbate the impact of worry on physical health and you know, increase the risks of all of those things we've been talking about so far. Alrighty, So let's have a look at a little bit of research that I dug up on. I've opened the door, but let's go a little bit deeper on some of the relationships that exist between thinking and sickness, some of

the relationships that we absolutely know about. So let's start with cardiovascular disease. So, numerous studies have established a link between chronic anxiety, negative thinking, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Anxiety disorders are associated with high rates of hype tension, a rhythmia so heart going out of time, and coronary artery disease. This stress induced release of cortisol and adrenaline often leads to changes in heart rate and

blood pressure and contributes to the development of cardiovascular problems. So, long story short, how we think what's happening in terms of our cognition and the way that we view the world and other people, and the way that we create problems or solutions can have a positive or negative effect on the way that our heart works. That's the dumb down version. And now think about if we open the door on the gastro intestinal stuff, like the gut biome stuff.

It's been there's a lot, been a lot of talk lately and by lately the last five years between relationship. The connection maybe is better between the brain and the gut. In fact, some people think that, you know, the gut is the second brain. So we have the brain. Some people call the gut second brain. Some people call the heart the third brain. And it's probably fair to assume that the brain as we know it, the brain, brain, and the gut and the heart are all their own

kind of intelligence. But anyway, so the connection between the brain and the gut, which is often called what's it called the gut brain access, it's right, that highlights the impact of worry and negative thinking on the gastro intestinal

health of the individual. So we know that negative thinking can exacerbate kind of symptoms of irritable boo syndrome IBS, gastroesophage or reflux disease GERD, and lots of other gastro testinal this sort of So again you know even on a gut level, that negative thinking has a hormonal response, which in terms has a gut biome consequence. So again, a non physical thing, a thought leading to a physical thing, an impacted gut biome. And as I mentioned before, you

know the relationship between thinking and chronic pain. That's a really interesting one because we know that chronic overthinking, that negative thinking, that rumination, can contribute to the development and or exacerbation of, in other words, making worse chronic pain

conditions like five ALGA and tension headaches. Many, many times I've been with people who have thought themselves into a headache, They've worried themselves into a headache, they've created with a non physical thing I thought, they've created a real physical

consequence in their body. And the constant activation of these stress responses it also leads to or it can lead to a heightened pain sense TOV and eventually perpetuate this kind of cycle of pain and distress, this two way kind of street, this interactive mechanism between these negative thoughts and this physical consequence in the body that we call pain.

All right, so let's take a little bit of a breather and maybe summarize this so far so the potential link between negative thinking and physical disease is one hundred percent supported by a growing body of evidence that indicates that our thoughts can have do have a profound effect

on our physical health. Biological mechanisms, psychological pathways, social and other environmental factors can also play a role in media mediating this Relationationship and understanding the connections between mental and physical health is really important for you and I to be able to develop a comprehensive approach slash strategy for prevention and treatment and emphasizing the need for integrated care

that addresses both psychological and physiological well being. So I might come back in the next day or three, and I just need to do a little bit more thinking about how I might articulate this. And while today I haven't, I haven't given you any solutions per se. What I've done and what I've tried to do is open the door on the conversation. And I mean, obviously, if we know what the problems are and then we can we can kind of figure out the solutions by virtue of

you know, working backwards. So I know that if I eat crap, I gained way, So if I don't act crap, I might not. I know that if I sit on the couch and a couch and obsess, there's an anxiety kind of consequence. So maybe I shouldn't sit on the couch and obsess and so on. But I might do. In fact, I will do in the near future. I just need to do some planning in the middle of

all of the other shit I've got going on. I will do another conversation around turning that negative thinking around and how we can create a better internal space to create or a better psychological and emotional space I guess to create better physiological outcomes. I might do that anyway.

I hope that was interesting for you. Like I said, I'm not a guru in this space, just opening the door, figuring it out myself, and I thought I would give you a little bit of a snapshot, a little bit of a peek behind the Craig curtain, to see where my mind's at. I'm fascinated with this. I'm going to continue apart from my other research. I'm going to continue on this journey. I'm going to keep asking questions and turning over metaphoric rocks to see what's under them. Keep

knocking on doors and opening doors, keep researching. But if you're not following me on or if you're not a member of our Facebook group which it's just called the You Project on Facebook You Project podcast, I think Facebook group jump in become part of that community. There's no books capture the genders, but we don't sell you anything. And maybe leave a comment on that page about this episode. And if you've got questions, thoughts, ideas or feedback, I'd

love to hear from you. All right, all the best kids,