How to Reduce Stress, Eliminate Negativity, and Live Longer
From the moment the Creator planted the first human in the middle of an incredibly complex creation, we have scrambled to accumulate, organize, analyze, categorize, label, and understand knowledge about the universe surrounding us.
Because we are finite or limited creatures, we must break things down into bite-sized portions to learn and understand them. It’s critical to consider how we perceive our universe and our personal world, for that perception—or worldview—will largely determine our existence.
During and after the Reformation, and especially during the twentieth century, it became popular among certain intellectuals to dismiss the spiritual side of the human race in favor of two broad philosophical viewpoints:
We are purely animal life forms operating solely as highly evolved organisms driven by chemical reactions.
We are life forms with highly advanced mental capacities that have “evolved” into more or less “spiritual” beings, creating our own gods as we need them.
Neither of these views of mankind is expressed in the Scriptures, and they have produced tremendous problems as these beliefs have infiltrated the scientific and philosophical communities, gradually influencing the way we perceive life and approach physical, mental, and even spiritual issues.
For example, some psychiatrists view humans as simply chemical or organic beings whose every mental state is created by or dramatically influenced by chemical reactions. Therefore, in their view, every mental malady we face can be isolated to chemical imbalances and “fixed with a pill.” This godless way of thinking is demeaning and narrow-minded at best. The Scriptures warn:
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” . . . The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. (Psalm 14:1a–2 NIV)
God created us in His image (Genesis 1:27), and God is a Spirit (John 4:24). Therefore, we are spirit beings who have souls (a mind, a will, and emotions) and who live in physical bodies. Our “parts” cannot be divided without skewing or misunderstanding the whole.
God made you a complex, interrelated being, fully integrated and interdependent. Even alternative and holistic health practitioners fall into the same error often made in conventional medicine—they try to fix one system or function instead of addressing the whole person: spirit, soul, and body.
I’m convinced that the Creator knew what He was doing when He created us, and I believe His Word is the foundation for total health: spiritual, mental, and emotional, as well as physical. I’m thankful for science and human advances in medicine and nutrition, but when science dismisses the Creator’s foundational principles, I’m certain that His pattern provides us with a better approach to life.
We must emphasize the whole being—body, soul, and spirit—and provide the individual with all of the tools needed to maintain or recapture complete health and wholeness.
It is clear from Scripture that in each person, spirit, soul, and body are very closely linked. The computer science concept GIGO (“garbage in, garbage out”) may best describe the most crucial “equation” available for the human condition. You and I are not computers, but the formula really does apply to virtually every area of human existence. If you allow “garbage” into your body, mind, or spirit, you can expect to “express” garbage. In fact, I have it on the highest authority:
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good words from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil words from an evil heart. (Matthew 12:34–35 NLT)
As examples of modern ways to entertain “garbage,” consider the following scenarios:
If you eat junk food, excessive amounts of sugar and preservatives, and favor the unclean foods the Creator warned us about, then you will almost certainly reap an unpleasant harvest of failed health later in life.
If your friends and close associates are people who use recreational drugs, abuse prescription drugs, get drunk, and are promiscuous, then you’re likely to fall into a dangerous lifestyle yourself sooner or later.
If you fill your mind with unhealthy and unwholesome images of pornography, violence, fractured relationships, and scornful attitudes about God, eternal values, and godly living, you will begin to act out what you put in.
What You Do Starts with What You Think
In most cases, the things you do and say begin with the things you think and believe. You are barraged by stressing circumstances and challenges every day. How do you deal with them? Do you even try?
Imagine your life as a glass filled to the halfway mark with water. How would you describe the way your life is going? Is the glass half full, or is the glass half empty? Your answer may reveal a lot about your thought life and worldview. A positive view would say “half full,” considering what you have; a negative view would say “half empty,” focusing on what you don’t have.
So where do you fall? Or are you too stressed out to think about it?
Stress is a natural part of life; some experts say that stress is life. Psychologist and author Dr. Kevin Leman said the best definition for stress he has ever found was this: Stress is the “wear and tear on our bodies produced by the very process of living.” He explained that stress comes from good things as well as bad circumstances, but trouble comes when stressful living lingers for days and weeks. “It reminds me of buying the best DieHard battery you can find, but if you have a habit of leaving the lights on, even a DieHard finally runs down,” Leman said.
Develop Your Stress Management Skills
Stress comes at you from at least four sources:
Outward circumstances over which you have no control
Circumstances or influences over which you do have control
Inward attitudes, beliefs, and thought patterns
Internal physical conditions
For maximum health, it’s important to become skilled in handling stress according to the Creator’s principles.
According to Dr. Michael D. Jacobson, author of The Word on Health, cortisol and DHEA are two of the most critical stress hormones produced by your body. Cortisol is a steroid hormone that affects your body in ways similar to prednisone, meaning it blocks inflammation and suppresses the immune system.
DHEA is the balancing hormone that reverses the effects of cortisol. (DHEA has anti-aging effects, boosts the immune system, and exerts key influence on sex hormones—and thus, fertility.) Both are produced by the adrenal cortex, which is directly affected by your brain.
One of the important keys to achieve a healthy life is to eat a diet and live a lifestyle that promotes a healthy balance of DHEA and cortisol. When the two hormones are in balance, we experience excellent health physically, mentally, and emotionally.
The adrenals also produce the neurotransmitters adrenaline and noradrenaline and help regulate blood pressure as well as salt and water balance through the production of aldosterone, an anti-diuretic hormone. Excess adrenaline can wreak havoc on the human digestive system, skin, heart and circulatory system, and mental state. Excess cortisol, with its powerful immunosuppressive powers, may even open the door to runaway infection, cancer, hyperthyroidism, poor wound healing, diabetes, infertility, and mental instability.
Anger, resentment, unforgiveness, and a desire for revenge all trigger the classic “alarm triad” response to stress, which involves adrenal gland hypertrophy (swelling) and thymus and lymph gland atrophy (shrinkage), which indicates the suppression of the immune system and gastric inflammation.
Is It Really Worth It?
These age-old “life-shorteners” were well documented in Scripture long before scientists and researchers set out to quantify the effects of negative emotions on our bodies. At last we are beginning to catch up to the Creator’s wisdom. Is it really worth the dangerous cost to hold on to anger or unforgiveness? Are we really willing to destroy ourselves in a quest for revenge?
When it comes to stress, it seems that the body can handle the day-to-day emergencies and surprises without any problem—but when stress hangs on, it drains the adrenal system like a car battery when the lights have been left on all night, making a “crash” inevitable.
In contrast, studies have shown that people “who experienced an episode of deep appreciation or love for five minutes saw their IgA levels [an antibody secreted in saliva and other body fluids as a first line of defense against infection] rise to 40 percent above normal and stay elevated for six hours,” said Dr. Jacobson in his book.
Even simple lifestyle adjustments can make a significant difference in your stress levels.
If you feel too busy to get away from your smartphone, then your stress-buster may be setting your phone to vibrate—or turning it off completely.
If you usually eat on the run, choose to sit down when you eat and turn off your smartphone or TV. Don’t allow your thoughts to be occupied with worry, irritation, or uncertainty. Focus on your meal and on pleasant thoughts. I recommend conversation with good friends during meals or reading something uplifting, such as God’s Word.
Get proper rest. There’s simply no substitute for quality sleep. Sleep is so vital to good health that I often refer to sleep as the most important non-nutrient you can get.
The Deadly Stress of Fear
Unmanaged stress can kill you and may be the single most important trigger of heart attacks. A 2014 study of over 17,000 found that long-term exposure to the threat of terrorism can elevate people’s resting heart rates and increase their risk of dying. This statistics-based study, performed by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the largest of its kind and indicated that fear, induced by consistent exposure to the threat of terror, can lead to negative health consequences and increase the risk of mortality.
Studies like this mirror traumatic, stressful events in the past that impacted the health of those living through them. A report in the Journal of Clinical Basic Cardiology said that sudden cardiac deaths increased significantly during the Northridge earthquake in California in 1994 and in the Israeli civilian population during the first days of the Gulf War in 1991 when Saddam Hussein of Iraq rained down Scud missiles onto the Tel Aviv populace. A 58 percent increase in mortality from cardiovascular diseases was noted on the day of the first strike on Israel by Scud missiles. Female death rates increased 77 percent, while male mortality increased 41 percent.
These days around the globe, the fear of terrorism is real, and the effects of fear on the body confirm the very real link between the spirit, soul (mind and emotions), and body. Closer to home, where we are presumably safer, some experts have estimated that stress accounts for as much as 75 percent of all visits to a physician!
Beware the Dangerous Unity of Dysfunction
I’m persuaded that we help create many of our problems through wrong thinking, poor decision making, and poor dietary choices. When these factors unite and start working against us, sickness or death usually isn’t far behind. The problem of arteriosclerosis perfectly illustrates this kind of dangerous “unity” in dysfunction.
Arteriosclerosis is a generic term for several vascular diseases in which the arterial wall becomes thickened and loses elasticity. The most common and serious form of atherosclerosis involves fat deposits on blood vessel walls.
Vascular disease, which affects the brain, heart, kidneys, other vital organs, as well as the extremities, is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and the world. Just over 800,000 people in the U.S. die each year from cardiovascular diseases. Stroke kills nearly 129,000 people, and about 116,000 people die of a heart attack each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other governmental sources. The number of deaths from cardiovascular disease alone is one of every three deaths in America and accounts for more lives than all forms of cancer combined.
Sudden stress is the most common trigger for fatal heart attacks because it’s able to crack the smooth covering of plaque common in people with atherosclerosis. This sets off a fatal chain reaction in the blood vessel that becomes clogged with plaque, which then dams up or shuts off blood flow to the heart—triggering a heart attack.
Anyone—whether he or she is a health-conscious individual or a health professional—who doubts the effect of the thought life on physical well-being should consider the list of diseases caused or worsened by emotional stress. This list was compiled by S.I. McMillen, M.D., and David E. Stern, M.D., in their landmark book None of These Diseases, and is the result of twenty-eight separate medical research studies and texts specifically offered as references for doctors, students, and researchers seeking further proof.
In their thesis statement, Doctors McMillen and Stern declared that emotional stress causes or worsens the following health problems:
digestive system disorders
circulatory system disorders
genito-urinary systems disorders
nervous system disorders
glandular disorders
allergies and immune system problems
inflammation of muscles and joints
infections
inflammatory and skin diseases
cancer
If you or someone you love suffers from any of the conditions on that list, let me reassure you that there is hope. As depressing as the facts about stress may appear, you do not have to become a victim of tension and worry! Countless numbers of people have overcome the negative effects of stress in the worst possible situations. In fact, Dr. McMillen nearly died of a bleeding ulcer before he learned how to successfully manage the stress in his life. His near-death crisis inspired the writing of the classic book None of These Diseases, in which he wrote this:
Our reaction to stress is an important key to longer, better living. When we feel stressed out, will we give up or keep going? Will we see it as an irritation or a challenge? Will we blow a fuse or let it charge us up? We hold the key. We can decide whether stress will work for us or against us—whether stress will make us better or bitter.
Negative Thoughts, Negative Words
In his book What You Don’t Know May Be Killing You, Don Colbert, M.D., described the story of a Jewish Holocaust survivor during World War II from Warsaw, Poland. When the Nazis discovered that he spoke German, they forcibly separated him from his wife, two daughters, and three sons because they could use him to deal with the prisoners. Then the SS guards mowed his family down with machine guns right in front of his eyes.
Author and psychiatrist George Ritchey was with the American troops who liberated the death camp survivors—including this man. Ritchey described this man’s life in Return from Tomorrow: “For six years he had lived on the same starvation diet, slept in the same airless and disease-ridden barracks as everyone else, but without the least physical or mental deterioration.” This miraculous survivor had no control over his outward circumstances and shared the same misery inflicted on millions of Jewish victims, yet he still survived.
What was his secret? He told Dr. Ritchey, “I had to decide . . . whether to let myself hate the soldiers who had done this . . . I had seen, too often, what hate could do to people’s minds and bodies. Hate had just killed the six people who mattered most to me in the world. I decided then that I would spend the rest of my life, whether it was a few days or many years, loving every person I came into contact with.”
When his camp was liberated, this man immediately didn’t think of his welfare first. He went to work with the liberators, working fifteen to sixteen hours per day serving his fellow death camp survivors. Dr. Colbert observed, “He had learned the secret that negative thoughts lead to negative words, which lead to negative attitudes and emotions.”
A Vital Key: Remove Negativity
One of the keys to my recovery was removing negative thinking and negative statements from my life. When I flew to San Diego to live with Bud Keith, the man who taught me the first principles of how to eat foods from the Bible, he forced me to examine my negative thinking. Basically, Bud did that by giving me no choice.
I stayed in his home with his wife and children, and he would not tolerate any negativity. I used to sit on his living room couch wearing a frown, which had become a regular part of my wardrobe for two years. He eventually banished me to my bedroom because he didn’t want his kids to learn my negative demeanor from me! His tough standards of conduct amounted to a rough boot camp for my soul.
I had no one to complain to because the family was not allowed to entertain negative words. It wasn’t long before the positive principles he taught started wearing off on me.
One time, as I was leaving the bathroom, I remember thinking, I may have another stomachache in ten minutes, but right now I’m fine, so I’m healed. I started believing my positive statement and thanking God for my healing. From that point on, I learned to count my blessings for the few moments that I had when I was free from pain and nausea. Right from the get-go, I learned a valuable lesson in how to live a moment-to-moment life of thanksgiving.
One night, after several weeks on the biblical diet, I decided that I would no longer focus on the negative or on what would happen tomorrow or in the next hour. I took conscious steps to make the change from negativity to thinking positive thoughts, but it was worth it! If I could only say positive things (which were all that were allowed in that home), I had to find the positive in any seemingly negative situation, like those moments early on when I didn’t feel agonizing pain. I’d say, “I’m well for this moment,” and let it go at that. That’s when I discovered that faith is not just something you say—it’s something you live, moment by moment.
The impact of this change in my thinking was a huge factor in my healing. I believe that faith and positive thinking, based on God’s Word, are vital keys to recovering and maintaining health. That is why faith the size of a tiny mustard seed can move mountains. (See Matthew 17:20.) Even when I was sick and unhappy, I tried to have faith that I would get better. That was the seed—or foundation—from which my miracle could “grow.”
Psychologist Dan Baker discovered virtually the same thing after dealing with the devastating death of his infant son, Ryan. The author of What Happy People Know said after his son’s death that he “wanted to wrestle with God and rewrite history.”
“Happy people are hugely resilient on the whole,” he wrote. “One thing happy people know is that they don’t get to be happy all the time. They can appreciate the moments, the little victories, the small miracles, and the relationships with one another.”
The Placebo Effect
It’s a commonly known fact that approximately three out of every ten people will see their symptoms change significantly if they believe they have received a valuable treatment for a physical condition. In fact, researchers count on this happening every time they conduct a scientific, double-blind study.
Dr. Michael Jacobson explained the phenomenon this way:
In a typical study, it is expected that around one-third of the placebo group [the group of subjects who receive a “sugar pill” or fake treatment exactly like the real dose] will actually show as much benefit as if they were on the actual medication. This improvement may be due simply to the positive physical changes that can take place when a person believes that he is getting better.
The placebo effect is especially strong with people who have no anchor of absolute truth and faithfulness in their lives. Personally, I’m convinced that if one hundred healthy people were told by a physician they had incurable cancer and had only six months to live, approximately thirty of them would die. That’s how powerful faith or the power to believe, even in the negative, can be.
The placebo effect is yet another indication pointing to the power of our thoughts over our physical condition. I’m not advocating a kind of “mind-over-matter” therapy here, but this phenomenon gives us a hint about the marvelous tool for health and power that God has given us in the human mind. It’s no wonder the apostle Paul said that we should take every thought captive. (See 2 Corinthians 10:5.)
At the time I wrote the original Maker’s Diet, two Danish researchers questioned the validity of the placebo phenomenon. In a report entitled, “Are ‘Dummy Pills’ a Dumb Idea, or Do They Really Help?”, their findings questioned the effect of placebos outside of their use as a baseline for comparison in clinical trials. In a pointed response, John Bailar III, M.D., Ph.D., found faults with the study and called the negative conclusions “too sweeping.”
The fact is, most doctors know a treatment is sometimes useless but because many patients demand some sort of medication for their condition, they oblige. For example, they routinely prescribe antibiotics for a flu bug because of the patient’s expectation that he or she will walk out of the examination with something to take to the local pharmacy. The downside to this practice is that the indiscriminate use of antibiotics kills all bacteria, both good and bad, which can leave the patient even more vulnerable to a bug making the rounds.
Placebo Versus Faith
Dr. Jacobson made a big distinction between the placebo effect and the power of faith—and so do I. The placebo effect is based on a person’s belief in the treatment and cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, a firm conviction regarding the absolute truth of God and His eternal Word.
In my search for health, I had plenty of opportunities to experience the placebo effect. After all, each of the seventy doctors and health practitioners informed me that they sure their “cure” would work for me; otherwise, they would not have suggested this course of treatment. Based on the treatment plans they presented me, it’s natural that I would put my trust in their ability to help me feel better.
None of them ever helped me. Instead, it took faith in God’s Word—and obedience to it—to really trigger a turnaround in my life.
Faith is powerful, and it produces hope. Hope begins with knowing that your Creator cares about you and that He has a plan for your life. This was one of my favorite Scriptures when I was going through my health issues:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV)
Hope is a big deal. Doctors McMillen and Stern noted a Harvard Medical School Conference in which a study was reviewed documenting that weekly churchgoers in Maryland were less likely than people who didn’t attend church regularly to die from heart attacks (50 percent), emphysema (56 percent), cirrhosis (74 percent), and suicide (53 percent). Similar results were found in studies of different population groups at three different medical teaching universities.
The Power of Prayer
All of the great heroes of the Bible, from Abraham to Hannah (the mother of the prophet Samuel), to John the Beloved (the author of the one of the four gospels as well as the Book of Revelation), all were people of fervent faith and devotion. One after another, they demonstrated the power and peace available through prayer and communion with the Creator of all.
People of faith have known the truth regarding the power in prayer since time began. Now, even the secular worlds of psychology and medicine are finally catching on. Studies are popping up all the time promoting the power of prayer (or meditation). Hospitals across the land have bolstered their “prayer therapy” for the sick and recovering.
Biblical prayer incorporates more than words—it often includes the healing touch of caring people of faith, and the results are often nothing less than miraculous. In the very least, they are comforting in times of need.
The Healing Power of Laughter
The Bible tells us, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones” (Proverbs 17:22, NKJV). Dr. Don Colbert noted that research conducted by the Department of Behavioral Medicine at the UCLA Medical School into the physical benefits of happiness proved conclusively that “laughter, happiness, and joy are perfect antidotes for stress.”
Dr. Colbert added this: “A noted doctor once said that the diaphragm, thorax, abdomen, heart, lungs—and even the liver—are given a massage during a hearty laugh.”
Dr. Michael Miller from the University of Maryland told attendees at an American Heart Association Conference, “We don’t know why laughter protects the heart…We know that exercising, not smoking and eating foods low in saturated fat, will reduce the risk of heart disease. Perhaps regular hearty laughter should be added to the list.”
Dr. Miller added this in an interview with the BBC: “The [doctor’s] recommendations for a healthy heart may one day be exercise, eat right, and laugh a few times a day.”
Here’s my professional opinion about the whole thing: “You gotta laugh a little!”
Moral of the Story
Here’s the moral of this article: When I started to believe I was getting well in San Diego and gave thanks to God for the moments of well-being I was experiencing, I began to feel better and get well.
A seemingly far-fetched, ridiculous-sounding, positive thought, word, or action that you can choose to express in your moment of desperation can act as a seed of faith that will spark the healing process for you. As you meditate on God’s Word and pray, daring to quote His promises for your healing, your faith will grow, and you will receive your miracle as I received mine.
