Do our thoughts and feelings contribute to our state of health and wellness? Absolutely.

This is easily identified when we look at the effects of increased stress on the body and how it affects heart function.

Yes, how we cope with stress in our lives has a direct affect on our heart function. Also, according to Louise Hay, author of You Can Heal Your Life, heart problems can also be indicative of the inability to give and receive love in your life.

However, to simply suggest that all disease is the result of our thoughts and feelings is inaccurate and also an over-simplified explanation of a complex issue. What about our environment, our diet, level of current health, and exercise habits?

Again, let’s look at a person who has heart problems. Heart patients are often told that they have to change their lifestyle - not only in terms of their dietary habits and exercise (or lack of) - but additionally as to how they think and how they can create new coping mechanisms in life. Does this mean that they get to sit and watch TV endlessly while curling up with a bag of Doritos; all the while affirming to themselves that they are fit and healthy?

I don’t think so.

Instead, it implies that along with changing their thinking and feeling, they also have to get up off their butts and do something about it. Would it be helpful for these people to also start thinking about how to increase the feeling of love in their lives, yes, absolutely.

So, what is the process of disease? Well, let’s start with the belief that everything is energy. Physical illness or dis-ease results from an overload of stressors on the brain and body that cause a stagnation of the life force energy. The human body can only handle a certain amount of stress and when the energy from various stressors are not eliminated effectively, the effects can start to internalize in the physical realm.

Life’s stressors come in all kinds of shapes and forms. Physical stressors include unhealthy air, water and food. What we often overlook in this area is our physical environment; our homes for instance and the chemicals that are off-gasing from our home interior and the toxins that we also absorb through the products that we use.

What is also at play here is our sleep patterns, and our exercise habits.

Emotional stress that could impair the flow of energy through our bodies includes our current emotional state of wellness and how effectively we process our emotions in a healthy way. Inappropriate anger, fear and resentment take a large toll on our health.

Psychological stress involves the way we think, our beliefs, and our perspectives on life.

Spiritual stress is determined by our personal level of connection to our source.

All of these potential stressors can block the natural flow of our vital life force energy and consequently manifest as illness and disease. Our personal degree of health and wellness is in large part a reflection of the flow or impingement of our vital life energy force throughout various mind/body systems.

As Louise Hays, author of You Can Heal Your Life said “True healing involves body, mind and spirit.”