The New You: Your Thoughts and Your Health

How do you feel today? Are you tired? Are you sick? Maybe you are feeling healthy, happy, and on top of the world. Here is something that may surprise you: how you feel has almost everything to do with how you think you feel. If you wake up in the morning thinking about how tired you are and wishing you could just pull the covers over your head and stay put, you will start the day feeling sluggish. Your body will respond to the directive of your thoughts by dragging through the morning, sans energy. Your entire day may play out at a subpar level because of the mental atmosphere you created for yourself before you even got out of bed.

What goes on in your mind actually creates chemical realities within your body. Click To Tweet

On the other hand, if you wake up choosing to be grateful for another morning, focusing on how healthy you are becoming and the promise the day holds, your body will again respond accordingly. You will move through your day with more energy and joy. You will feel better, look better, be able to stick to a healthy lifestyle better, and have more to offer those around you—and all because of what you chose to say to yourself when the alarm went off.

What goes on in your mind actually creates chemical realities within your body. Different thoughts and their accompanying emotions cause neurons to fire in your brain, setting off correlating physical reactions. This isn’t new information. King David wrote about it thousands of years ago: “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength” (Prov. 17:22).

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale took it a step further:

The longer I live the more I am convinced that neither age nor circumstance needs to deprive us of energy and vitality. We are at last awakening to the close relationship between religion and health. We are beginning to comprehend a basic truth hitherto neglected, that our physical condition is determined very largely by our emotional condition, and our emotional life is profoundly regulated by our thought [mental] life. All through its pages, the Bible talks about vitality—to be filled with energy.

Science backs up both King David’s and Peale’s assertions. The stress that comes along with wrong thinking (and the resulting negative feelings and bad attitudes) raises blood pressure and releases cortisol into your system. We have already examined just how dangerous that can be over time. Choosing to let negative thoughts go in favor of more positive ones automatically improves your body’s state of being, leading to more complete health and wellness. Filling your mind with the right thoughts is imperative to becoming the new you.

– Nelson Searcy and Jennifer Dykes Henson

The above excerpt is from p. 179-180 of The New You: A Guide to Better Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Wellness.

With your copy of The New You, you will come away with specific strategies on how to lose weight, get more sleep, lower stress, nurture better relationships, connect with God and much more! Anyone who wants to trade in the frustration of average living and less-than health for the hallmarks of the new life God promises will find The New You an effective personal guide for the journey.

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

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About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.

Nelson SearcyHealth, Leadership