I often worry.
Usually for no reason (if there's ever a truly valid reason to worry).
Right now, I stress out, whether to take laptop with me on the trip to Corby.
What is the point of this worry? Why do I make myself suffer with taking the decision? Well while I write this I already decided that I do take it so now I'm quite relaxed. Relaxation came after Miss D and I had a laughing session about that.
I mean, how crazy it is, to waste the precious time to worry about such silly things? Yet the mind sometimes narrows down to this one thing, this one silly thing, focuses all its attention on it and I become a bundle of stress.
Worry does not bring any benefits. We can't change or positively affect things with worry. There are none but negative outcomes that come from worrying.
Now, knowing that our health is highly influenced by our environment we can see how detrimental worry is to us.
Let me explain...
Our body is the environment, composed of trillions of cells. Our organism always strives for Homeostasis. Our mind being part of the body can influence this environment to a great degree, either positively or negatively.
At moments of worry and stress we affect our endocrine system and release powerful hormones that have a great impact on the inner workings of the system.
It affects our genetics since it's the hormones that transcribe the genetic blueprint when creating proteins. It thus promotes aging, creates disease, negatively affects our immune system, disrupts the digestion through our nervous system.
A simple act of worrying/stress has quite complex effect and implications upon the body.
The Placebo effect
To further validate my point of how our mind affects our body, take the Placebo effect as an example.
Dictionary:
a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.
If you want to read more here's the Wikipedia's take on it.
Great isn't it? It helps us understand the healing process of the body. We often attribute the healing to the medicine itself but it is the body itself that does the healing, often aided by external stimuli that helps alter the environment (body's bio-chemical composition).
I'm not saying that we should think happy thoughts whenever we get sick. What I am saying is that we can affect our health positively by cultivating positive mental attitude and avoid unnecessary stress in general. We can avoid getting ill.
All in all, worry does not help with anything, won't fix anything and is a detriment. Less worry and stress is my aim.