“Positive Emotions Help Build Health”

More than thirty years ago, a coincidence changed the course of Stella Maris Maruso’s life. Someone from the Brazilian government proposed that he participate in a commission that sought to investigate and make the use of alternative medicines official.

This is how, not without some skepticism, this successful businesswoman began to collaborate with doctors who had investigated the different effects of meditation, breathing, conscious relaxation or spirituality on conventional treatments.

He soon found that mind-body interaction exerted a powerful influence on health. This fortuitous event and the painful experience of having lived closely with his father’s cancer, from which he achieved a remission, led him to dedicate his life to those facing crisis and severe illnesses, and to create and direct the Health Foundation.

That concern has pushed him over the years to give lectures in the field of emotional intelligence and share his knowledge through his books, such as ‘ The laboratory of the soul ‘ ,’ The inner laboratory ‘or ‘ When pain calls at your door. ‘

In 2014 Stella Maris Maruso, an indefatigable traveler, received Cuerpomente in a hotel in Barcelona, ​​after a twelve-hour plane from Argentina, without losing her friendly demeanor despite exhaustion. We chatted with her for two long hours in a fruitful conversation.

–For a long time he has been dedicated to disseminating the effects that emotions have on the body. In your opinion, what is the relationship between the mind and the body?

–The mind and body are closely linked and have a powerful influence on health, life, illness or death. Attitudes, beliefs, emotional states, from love to compassion and from fear to resentment and anger, can cause chain reactions that affect internal chemistry optimizing or weakening health. In addition, the body has a biochemical potential, an internal laboratory capable of producing substances that promote the immune system that can be used for their own benefit. That is why it is so important to build health with the personal tools that we have.

Powerful emotions

– What personal tools are you referring to?

–The most important thing in life is to create health, but sometimes the lifestyle we lead does not build health but destroys it little by little. And we don’t realize it until a severe situation appears. When this happens, our attitude is vital to be able to overcome any challenge, setback or illness. Each person has tools to create health. Among these are managing emotions and activities such as meditation or relaxation, which allow you to connect with your spiritual side.

–So, the body works mediated by our thoughts?

Yes, in a way the body is hostage to thoughts. We have to learn to use our mind. We are often trapped in a loop created by predetermined ideas. Often the mind goes from excitement to excitement and that prevents us from enjoying life. It is scientifically proven that there are negative emotional states that correspond to physiological states that, permanently maintained, disrupt the balance. “Balance” is the most sacred word that human beings have to feel good. The body is prepared to react to acute stresses more than to chronic ones.

That is why the latter, when they are established, prevent us from enjoying our states of excellence. Some researchers claim that we suffer from “delight deficit syndrome. ” We do not know how to enjoy what surrounds us, what life gives us because the mind often assails us with doubts or concerns. And everything you think and feel weaves together current and future health.

– But this influence of the mind on the body, was not raised by Robert Ader decades ago?

– Indeed, Rober Ader, one of the fathers of psychoneuroimmunology, showed that the immune system can be conditioned. He led the way for further research that showed that the central, peripheral, endocrine, and immune systems communicate, and the mind, emotions, and body do not function separately, but are closely related to each other.

–If there is this interconnection, what weight do emotions have on health?

– Anguish, fear, contained rage, each of the ill-experienced emotions make their own biochemistry and can be toxic and depressant of the immune system. It responds to internal and external signals and to other systems such as the endocrine and the nervous. Therefore, it is not the situation or the event itself, but the way in which the individual faces an emotional situation that allows significant changes in the immune response to be produced. It is not what happens to you but how you live it that ends up being metabolized in your body.

“But how important is what we feel?”

–Emotions are vital. Science already speaks of emotion molecules and the biology of emotions is currently being studied as just another science. An emotion can be correlated with a physiological state that has been shown to influence receptors on immune cells. Health is not a state, it is a dynamic process, therefore it can be reinforced and protected by cultivating positive emotions. And that is why developing emotional intelligence is extraordinarily healing.

“Difficulties are masterful. The more difficult it is, the greater the challenge to change our life.”

Chronic stress

– One of the most studied natural processes in relation to the immune system is stress. How does it affect our defenses?

–Stress hormones coordinate the function of the organs and provide capacities to face danger or flight. Stress is necessary for life as long as it is not sustained. If it is experienced continuously, it has a negative impact on the immune system. This long-lasting emotional stress causes adrenaline and cortisol hormones to continually flow into the bloodstream.

It is proven that prolonged elevated levels of adrenaline can lead to increased heart rate and blood pressure, to the point that they become the norm. At the same time, high cortisol levels maintained over time can also influence levels of sugar, triglycerides, or even loss of bone density.

– This would be the biochemical repercussion of negative emotions?

– Yes, in a certain way yes, the biology of negative emotions always expels us from the comfort zone. When the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis kicks in, preparing the body for a tough challenge and stress is triggered, for example, we lose the ability to think better in the long term. The higher the pressure, the more the ability to store information in creative memory or to plan effectively diminishes . You will be creating what neuroscientists call “cognitive dysfunction.”

If the stress caused by negative emotions is sustained in the long term, the results are even more devastating. At this point, negative and toxic emotions turn into greater evils because the body begins to harm itself. The continuous bombardment of stress molecules can damage organs and tissues.

–And how are emotions associated with the process of a disease?

–The basic communication link between what we think in the brain and what we experience in the cells are neuropeptides. The brain produces these neuropeptides, which are chains of amino acids with which the immune system connects to the brain. When the brain interprets physical perceptions such as anger, nervousness or anxiety, each of the immune cells will instantly know this interpretation. Considering that these cells have memory, reactions to negative emotions will be influential and far-reaching at the cellular level. That is why positive emotions are so decisive: they build health and help repair the imbalances of negative emotions.

The transforming forces

– Is it important to take charge of our health and not let the doctors do everything?

–Health is a process that is permanently updated according to our lifestyle and genetic history. Our intervention when we have a disease or problem is not something alternative, it is decisive. It is not wise to be mere spectators. When a sick patient arrives at our foundation, we help them become aware of how important it is for their health that they take the reins, since there lies part of that power to change the course of their illness. You have to feel that a severe setback or a serious illness can enrich your life.

Difficulties are masterful. the greater the difficulty the greater the challenge to change our life. To achieve this, you have to expand the circle of what is most important, escaping from limiting thoughts. And allow yourself to be amazed and experience states of transcendence. And above all to experience peace, joy and tranquility to strengthen the immune system.

– Are there more damaging prognoses than the diseases themselves?

– There are prognoses that kill more than the disease itself, since they condemn the patient and turn him into an individual with no possibility of reacting. Never give up hope of improving your health.
To begin this change it is important that the patient accepts the diagnosis but not the prognosis. It is a first step in optimizing immune response and recovery capacity. Because that change simply implies learning to live, being able to change the course of events and also learning to die. At my foundation we want to convey to doctors how important it is for the patient to intervene and participate in their recovery and, above all, that after the diagnosis they avoid giving a prognosis.

–What do the Fundación Salud and the Generar Salud de Barcelona association offer to the sick?

–We offer that support that conventional treatments do not provide. At the Fundación Salud, and also at the Generar Salud association, through the advanced recovery and support program (PARA), we try to enhance the resources of the person in order to promote the vital changes that mark the path to recovering health. We also offer support to those who receive adverse diagnoses. Because who is in charge of the patient’s hidden suffering, their fears, their imaginary catastrophes, their stress in the face of treatments, or the inability to express their fears?

Our teams of therapists and professionals respond to the patient’s concerns and develop a health plan that allows active participation in their recovery and with which medical treatments can be optimized.

“The best states to boost the immune system are peace, joy, and tranquility.”

Meditate and relax

– In this process, what role does the practice of meditation or relaxation play?

–During my life I have dedicated many years to the practice of deep meditation techniques and I have had such amazing experiences that I incorporated them into the program for a comprehensive treatment that meets all the needs of the patient. Meditation is the darling of therapies, which we use because it provides physical and spiritual benefits. With meditation the body enters a state of deep rest, in which the mind frees itself of its tensions, showing better levels of concentration, greater satisfaction and achieving transcendental experiences. Transcendence allows one to distance oneself from past stories and fear for future ones.

In addition, during meditation the mind creates a space in which catastrophic thoughts are relativized. Meditation transforms the body’s biochemistry, as it is capable of reducing adrenaline and cortisol in the blood.

– Is it true that relaxation is also effective in building health?

– Yes. Relaxation induces an increase in the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system with its health benefits. This can also be achieved through contemplation, laughter, prayer, caressing, visualization, or play for fun. All this helps to create health, a discipline that unfortunately is not studied in any medical school in the world.