The Science Behind the Law of Attraction Magazine January, 2018 | Page 24

You r Th ou gh t s Can M ak e You Si ck By Featur ed Colum nist Ellen Wood This is a fact supported by scientific research. In his bookEmotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Dr. Daniel Goleman writes on the nature and importance of another kind of intelligence ? what he calls our emotional quotient, or E.Q. ? and shares some cutting-edge findings in biology and brain science. focus on something, you create emotions. If you find yourself thinking of a fear or dread, your emotional response will trigger the amygdala just as if the fear or dread were really happening. Can you recall a time when you heard a sound that frightened you? Maybe you were alone and a sound made you think someo ne was in the house. A few You?ve probably, at some time, allowed yourself to minutes later with the lights on, you discover there?s intensively worry about something and actually no one there and no threat. There really never was a found yourself becoming physically ill. That?s threat, but your heart is racing and you may feel because these negative thoughts are perceived by breathless. All of those physical responses were the most primitive part of our brain, the amygdala, caused by what you thought. The key is what Dr. as a real threat. The amygdala responds by Goleman terms emotional intelligence ? the ability to triggering a rush of hormones, especially cortisol, to be aware of your emotional responses and check deal with a threatening situation. This is also called those knee-jerk survival instincts before they trigger the stress response and stress is the number one the physiological reactions. factor that causes us to grow old and deteriorate. And the really great news is that neuro-science The amygdala developed early in our evolution as a studies show the circuitry that manages these survival mechanism because if we weren?t emotional intelligence abilities is malleable constantly alert to danger, we might end up in the throughout our lifetime. This malleable quality belly of a mountain lion. Or the guy with the club in (neuro-plasticity) means we can develop greater the cave next door might get our food. Although the emotional intelligence, conscious response, at any amygdala?s hormones helped us survive with a flight age. or fight response, today these hormonal responses Ellen Wood of Taos, NM is an can damage our health. The ?threat? created by our inspirational speaker and thoughts and feelings isn?t typically an immediate award-winning author of threat to our lives, as was the case with our caveman ?Think and Grow Young.? Her ancestors. It?s not something we can deal with by new book is ?Joy! Joy! Joy! 7 running away or fighting the danger, the type of Mind Body Spirit Self-Help physical action that would use up the cortisol. Practices to Relieve Stress Without taking action by fleeing or fighting, cortisol and Anxiety, Reverse Memory and other stress-triggered hormones stay in our Loss and Live Happy.? system and can harm our health. Contact her at And here?s the kicker: you can stimulate this [email protected]. emotional response with your thoughts! When you Page 24 Jan ., 2018