Over the last few days, we have been discussing the powerful effects of stress on our immune system. Our thoughts and the emotional response to those thoughts , play an intricate part in the effects of stress on our body and our brain. It is worth mentioning here that our gastrointestinal system has its own nervous systems that is connected to the brain through the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve relays messages from the gut, heart, and lungs back to the brain. The information from the gut is processed in the hypothalamus initiating an emotional response either good or bad. This explains why when we are stressed we may have constipation, diarrhea, stomach ache, loss of appetite, or increase appetite. Again, stress negatively affects our body and increases inflammation suppressing our immune system. Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis are inflammatory bowel diseases and the underlying cause is stress. We know that many of our diseases have a genetic component but studies are revealing that these bad genes don’t have to be turned on. It seems that with healthy living which includes diet, exercise, and healthy thoughts these genes don’t have to be turned on. On the other hand, toxic thoughts along with what we are putting into our body and environmental factors can affect our genes expression in a negative way. I hope you are seeing the brain-body connection and how our mind and thoughts direct the whole process. What we are meditating on or focusing on is key to living the abundant life.  In my prayer time, the Lord said, “that a mind fixed on the world or worldly things is distressed but a mind fixed on Jesus will remain in perfect peace”. This is my prayer for you today:

1 John 1:2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

Our soul comprises our mind, will, and emotions. We can make good choices.  We can choose what our mind is focusing on. We can choose our thoughts and we don’t have to believe everything that pops in our head. I believe right believing will produce right living. We must learn to deal with negative emotions and stress before they become destructive. Fear and condemnation are very destructive emotion and over the next few days we will discussed them and learn how the deal with them through the power of love.