How To Get A Peace Of Mind And Improve Your Health And Well-Being
By: Peter Burns
Tags: Psychology, Mindfulness, Buddhism, Self Improvement, Meditation

Currently, the peace of mind of most people is severely disturbed

In the current period, most of us have felt severe disturbances to our mental health. Whether it is through the fear of the unknown, through actually getting sick or seeing loved ones get sick, or through loneliness, your peace of mind has been knocked out of whack. For me, from a mental health point of view, this year has been really tough.

We are told that it’s OK to not be OK, but is it? In his book, “Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill”, Ricard cites several studies that show anxiousness, hostility, and other bad emotions make any bad situation even worse.

“255 medical students took a personality test designed to measure their level of hostility. Twenty-five years later, it was found that the most aggressive among them had suffered five times more cardiac events than those who were less irritable.” — Mathieu Ricard

Buddhism divides emotions into good and bad. Bad emotions are anger, anxiety, greed. These cause a bad state of mind and are the path to suffering. On the other hand, there are also good emotions. These are kindness, compassion, and joy.

Unfortunately, most people often get hijacked by these bad emotions. Countless times I have felt agitated, scared, or depressed. I have gotten angry at the slightest provocation or engaged in arguments that would have been best to avoid. Fact is, these types of episodes usually leave me feeling sick, mentally, and physically.

The road to keeping my bad emotions in check has been full of thorns. However, I realized that if I don’t head on that path, I risk creating my own self-created obstacles. Life is hard as it is, and tripping yourself up just makes things even worse. I decided to work on lessening the impact of bad emotions on my mind and instead of fostering good emotions like joy, compassion, and gratitude.

Now more than ever is the time to turn things around. Finally, it seems like we are beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccines are starting to get rolled out, which could be one of the keys to solving the current problems linked to the pandemic.

The way vaccines work is that they stimulate the body to produce antibodies to the virus, without you actually being infected. If you do come across the virus later, these antibodies come quickly to your rescue, fighting and overcoming these foreign pathogens.

Having a good state of mind can improve the way your body reacts to the vaccine. While this may sound a bit New Age, it has been supported by science. Researchers Richard Davidson and Jon Kabat-Zin conducted a scientific study that looked at the effects that meditation had on novice practitioners after 3 months.

After the 3 months, they were administered a flu vaccine. What was discovered is that their bodies reacted much better to the vaccine as compared to the control group. The meditators were able to produce 20% more anti-bodies than the non-meditators.

“The immune system of these apprentice meditators was also boosted and the flu vaccine that they received in the fall, at the end of the training, was 20 percent more effective than in the control group.” — Mathieu Ricard

Even after only 3 months, meditation was able to create changes in the brain. These changes were correlated with an overall growth in well-being and a peace of mind. In turn, this helped the people in the group by boosting their immunity.

Beneficial mental effects produced beneficial physical effects. This could be what is behind the famous placebo effect. This is where belief in getting better will actually help you to get better. While this type of effect is not all-powerful, it can definitely help. According to Harvard professor and medical doctor Ted Kaptchuk, what is important here is the mind-body connection:

“The placebo effect is more than positive thinking — believing a treatment or procedure will work. It’s about creating a stronger connection between the brain and body and how they work together.”

However, keep in mind that the placebo (and positive thinking) is not a cure-all. It can definitely help though, especially in relieving pain, fatigue, and nausea. When it comes to your health, a positive mindset beats a negative mindset at any time of the day or night.