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Can Emotions Make You Sick? Our thoughts shape our lives, but we often have no control over them. Let's find out what doctors have to say about this.

What thoughts create illness?

How Thoughts Affect Physical Health: Can our thoughts and emotions affect our health? This question has long been debated in the medical and psychological worlds. This same question was posed to Dr. Amod Sachan, Director of the Hindu Cancer Institute, at ABP's Youth Conclave.

He said, "I've been treating patients for the past forty years. Furthermore, I've also taught doctors. When this experience was examined in detail, it became clear that the treatments we provide are incomplete in many cases, and this situation is being seen throughout the world. Now, people are gradually becoming aware and questioning how illnesses arise. Our thoughts and emotions are considered a major cause. When our thoughts and emotions remain unchanged for a long time, we remain trapped in the same mental trap."

How do our thoughts and emotions work, and how can we change them?

Dr. Amod Sachan explains that our mind functions in two parts. The first is the conscious mind (which accounts for approximately 5 percent of the total). The second is the subconscious mind, which is active for approximately 95 percent of the time. Its speciality is that it stores memories from our entire lifetime. It can be considered a kind of data center, where audio-video recordings of our thoughts and experiences are stored.

Sometimes we have dreams that have no direct connection to our current lives. These may be the result of old recordings in our subconscious mind being replayed. These recordings can then generate new thoughts in our conscious mind. This is why humans are unable to change themselves easily, even if they want to.

The impact of positive and negative thoughts

Dr. Amod explains that our thoughts are of two types: positive and negative. Positive thoughts include emotions like love, compassion, kindness, and goodwill, which lead to feelings of happiness, peace, and joy. Negative thoughts include emotions like jealousy, anger, ego, and lust, which are constantly active. Positive thoughts support the healing process within the body and help produce hormones that reduce illness. However, prolonged negative thoughts can increase stress in the body. According to Dr. Amod, negative thinking is often rooted in excessive greed or dissatisfaction. While work is not wrong, when done solely out of greed, it increases mental stress. It is better to approach work as a duty.

Why is it difficult to change your mind?

Dr. Amod says that even when we decide not to entertain negative thoughts, they often arise while we're working. This is due to the rapid transmission of messages between our neurons, which travel from one part to another in less than a millisecond. Furthermore, our brain is also governed by the lower brain, which is responsible for emotional responses. The prefrontal cortex, our body's primary processor, helps us make informed decisions. Because the lower brain activates first, we often react immediately, whereas it takes 1 to 2 seconds to form a proper response. Later, we realize why we did so.

What is the solution?

According to Dr. Amod, the thoughts we are born with don't change on their own. Changing them requires an active process. Meditation is considered an effective method. During meditation, we learn to observe our thoughts instead of letting them flow. When we repeatedly meditate or write down our new thoughts, old patterns in the subconscious mind gradually begin to change. The doctor explains that our brain cannot distinguish between real experience and imagination. This means that whatever we repeatedly think, the mind begins to believe it to be true. This is why positive thinking and imagination have an impact on our behavior and emotions.