we've all heard about the placebo effect the instance when you take a medication because
you're sick and later when you're all better you discovered that the medication was just a sugar
pill the pill did nothing the healing was done by your mind it is estimated that half the efficacy
of pharmaceutical drugs can be attributed to the placebo however the placebo effect can work in
both ways our mind can actually induce illness and this is known as the nocebo effect every
stressful thought is like a dose of a nocebo pill and this stress literally shuts down the immune
system this is why doctors give stress hormones to a patient who is receiving an organ transplant
the immune system needs to be turned off so that the body won't reject the foreign organ
in modern society many people are trapped in a cycle of financial debt
fear-mongering on the news instability in the home soul-crushing jobs and toxic social media
and so they are living in a never-ending state of stress which results in the nocebo effect
our well-being is a reflection of how we perceive the world if we gain an understanding over how our
emotions affect our biology then we gain the ability to take back control over our health
and come into alignment with our mind body soul genetics and environment today's episode is from
the original gaia series rewired by the wise and powerful dr joe dispenza this episode will
break down the difference between living in survival and living in creation you are
not a victim of your genetics or environment you have the capacity to experience reality
and transform it it's time to take our power back sit back and enjoy this insightful presentation
with dr joe dispenza can be defined as a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting
from adverse or very demanding circumstances but how do different kinds of stress cause long-term
effects on our brain and body stress usually is created when we can't predict a future outcome
when we feel that we can't control the situation or when we have the perception
that there's a threat a danger or a perception that something's going to get worse in our lives
you may not be able to control everything that happens in your life or your outer world
however is it possible that you can learn how to control your inner world of thoughts and feelings
i'm your host dr joe dispenza and in the previous episode we went into depth on the ancient practice
of meditation and what it means to be truly present in this episode we're going to identify
different kinds of stress show you the long-term effects of stress how it can create
illness in your body and once you understand what stress can do to you it's my hope that
the information you'll learn will empower you to make some important changes in your life
there are three types of stress there's physical stress chemical stress and emotional stress
now physical stress are things like traumas accidents injuries falls
chemical stress flus bacteria viruses blood sugar levels toxins and food emotional stress
family tragedy second mortgages single parenting traffic jams and all of these different stressors
whether they're physical chemical or emotional knock your brain and body out of balance in fact
the definition of stress is when your brain and body are knocked out of homeostasis
now the stress response is what your body innately does to return itself back to order when you
or any organism in nature begins to perceive a danger or threat in their external environment
they turn on a primitive nervous system called the fight-or-flight nervous system
and when the person or the organism is perceiving that danger
the body innately begins to mobilize enormous amounts of energy and resources all of its
energy now is being mobilized to be able to adapt to the stress in the environment so then we begin
to tap the body's vital resources so that we can survive the condition in the outer world
all organisms in nature can tolerate short-term stress whether it's a zebra being chased by a lion
or whether it's a pack of coyotes chasing a deer the moment the organism perceives that danger and
switches on that emergency system there is a rush of adrenaline and a rush of energy and there is an
arousal that takes place in the brain and body and those chemicals then alter our normal homeostasis
and in that state of survival we switch on that sympathetic nervous system
or what's called the fight-or-flight nervous system and our pupils dilate our salivary juices
shut down it's not a time to eat our heart rate increases our respiratory rate increases
blood is sent to the extremities and it's shut down in the eternal organs because it's a time
to run it's a time to fight or it's a time to hide now if the zebra or the deer outrun the predator
30 minutes later the stress response begins to switch off and the body returns back to balance
after there's a stress response many organisms need to rest and repair because the body has
to come back online and regenerate and conserve energy what if though you're being chased by t-rex
and you're turning on that primitive nervous system called the fight-or-flight nervous system
and the moment you perceive that threat and you're in danger and now you're running from
the predator that's very adaptive but what if then the predator is waiting outside the cave
and waiting for you to go out and get some food we could say then that your ability to sustain
a certain stress response would be extended but what if it isn't t-rex outside the cave
what if it's your co-worker what if it's your mother-in-law what if it's your boss
what if it's traffic and what was once highly adaptive becomes very maladaptive because when
you turn on the stress response and you can't turn it off now you're headed for disease
because no organism can live in emergency mode for an extended period of time reason this with me if
you keep mobilizing enormous amounts of energy for some threat in your outer world there's no energy
in your inner world for growth and repair so think of the sympathetic nervous system as the emergency
system that's like the gas pedal in the car the other nervous system called the parasympathetic
nervous system that nervous system is the nervous system of relaxation of regeneration of metabolism
so if a person is living in a constant state of stress and they like an addict become conditioned
to the rush of the arousal of those chemicals then in time then they will begin to use the problems
and conditions in their life to reaffirm their conditioning or their addiction to that emotion
we become so conditioned to these chemicals that like a drug addict we need the bad job
we need the poor relationship we need a difficult situation in our life to keep getting that rush
of adrenaline to keep getting that rush of energy and in a sense people become addicted to the life
they don't even like so then because of the size of the neocortex the thinking brain as you learned
about we can make thought more real than anything else and people can begin to think about their
problems and as they begin to think about their problems they can turn on the stress response
just by thought alone and we now know that those chemicals can become addictive and you can turn
on the stress response just by thought alone so then you can become addicted to your own thoughts
so it's a scientific fact that the long-term effects of the hormones of stress push the genetic
buttons that create disease and you can turn on the stress response just by thought alone it means
then that your thoughts can literally make you sick and so many diseases around the world now are
created by the immune system being suppressed or what we call immune mediated diseases everything
from cancer ms lupus rheumatoid arthritis food allergies food sensitivities is a compromise
in the immune system so here's the question if your thoughts can make you sick is it possible
that your thoughts can make you well well we did a research study where we took 117 people
and we wanted to measure their cortisol levels which is the stress hormone and another chemical
called iga immunoglobulin a it's your body's primary defense against bacteria and viruses
so as cortisol levels go up and you're mobilizing enormous amounts of energy for some threat in your
outer world the immune system dials down and now the immune system becomes compromised because all
of the energy is going for a threat in the outer world our immune system becomes suppressed so
typically iga levels go down so we measured the cortisol and iga levels and we put them through
four days of training and we asked them to trade emotions like anger and frustration and hatred and
violence and aggression and competition and fear those are all the chemicals that are derived from
the stress hormones we ask them to trade those survival emotions for elevated emotions heartfelt
emotions like gratitude appreciation kindness care love for life a joy for existence and all we
wanted them to do for 10 minutes a day was open their hearts and begin to feel those elevated
emotions at the end of three and a half days we went back and we remeasured those same values
and their immune system that is iga levels went up as a collective about 50 percent their cortisol
levels dropped about 16.25 the stress hormones went down and their immune system up regulated
to a great degree that means then when you begin to make a change in the way you think and the way
you feel and you begin to change your attitude and you begin to open your heart again and feel
an elevated emotion it is those elevated emotions that begin to restore and repair the immune system
so then there's three things when you're living by the hormones of stress that you keep your
attention on think about it if you're being chased by a predator all of your attention is
on your outer environment where are you going to go what place do you need to move to what object
you need to move past and when you're under the gun of those chemicals you're thinking about time
how much time do i have to get there so then the body the environment and time and if where you
place your tension is where you place your energy it makes sense then if all of your attention is
on your body all of your attention is on your environment and all of your attention is on time
then you are putting all of your attention in this three-dimensional reality now you have to play by
the rules of this three-dimensional reality and everything that you create will take time
when people are under the gun of those chemicals they're drawing from this invisible field of
energy surrounding their body this vital life force and they're using it to make chemistry
and the field around their body shrinks and they become more matter and less energy more
particle and less wave and the very hormones of stress heighten our senses so that we become
a materialist and the more altered we feel from that stress response or by the emotional reaction
from some threat or danger the more we narrow our focus on the cause or the object
and when we do that all of a sudden we are focusing only on matter and so people over time
get hooked in or habituated into narrowing their focus so then when you're living in emergency mode
it's not a time to create it's not a time to open your heart it's not a time to learn
anything new it's not a time to sit still and go within in fact if the survival genus switched on
you'd be thinking in some level innately that it's not a time to sit still because you would be prey
so then the more people are conditioned or addicted to the hormones of stress the more their
attention is on matter the more they begin to experience separation from everyone and everything
now if stress is created by the feeling that you're losing control in your life
that you can't predict an outcome or you have the perception that something or someone is causing
situations in your life to get worse then if you're living by the hormones of stress on a daily
basis then what we try to do is we try to control everything in our life when we're feeling loss of
control we try to predict the next moment based on our memories of the past that means people
under stress are craving the known they're trying to get back to the familiar or the known because
in survival the unknown is a scary place so then as they begin to shift their attention from
one person to one problem to another person to another problem to another thing to another place
each one of those elements has a neurological network in the brain and the arousal of those
chemicals then begin to cause those different circuits as you shift your attention to begin
to become highly activated and now the brain is functioning in a very incoherent state and the
arousal of those chemicals drives the brain into a very very highly analytical over-focused state
think about it when you're under stress have you noticed that you keep thinking about the
same problem over and over again because the very hormones of stress cause you to
narrow your focus on the cause because that's what you do when you're living in
and in fact out of the infinite possibilities that exist in your reality when people are addicted
or living in that stressful state they'll always select the worst case scenario in
their mind and prepare for the worst why is that because in survival if you prepare for the worst
anything less that happens you have a better chance of surviving
so people spend the majority of their life preparing for the worst thing that
could happen to them when they're living in the stressful state and it turns out
that 70 percent of the time most people are living in survival so then when you react to someone or
something there's a refractory period of chemicals that's created from your emotional reaction
and if you don't know how to regulate or stop that emotional reaction
and you keep that same reaction lingering for hours or days that's called a mood if you keep
that same refractory period going for weeks to months on end that's called the temperament
if you keep that same emotional reaction going on for years on end that's called the personality
trait and most people's personalities then are defined by experiences from the past
so now that you understand that stress is when the brain and body are knocked out of balance
and you understand that the hormones of stress push the genetic buttons and create disease
it begs the question is there anyone or anything truly worth living in that state
so then if people are living in chronic stress and they're drawing from this invisible field
of energy surrounding their body and they're mobilizing that vital life force to make chemistry
and the field around their body is shrinking and they're feeling more like matter and less
like energy more like particle and less like wave and they feel separate or disconnected
from everyone and everything in their life well when your matter trying to change matter
we tend to force outcomes control outcomes try to predict outcomes and there's only a certain number
of resources that we have when we're matter trying to change matter we'll compete we'll fight for
it we'll manipulate we'll try harder we'll hope we'll wish because we're experiencing separation
and yes you may accomplish your dreams but if your matter trying to change matter and all of
your attention is on your body the environment and time then everything you create in your life
will take time because you'll have to move your body through space and when you move your body
through space it's going to take time for you to get what you want so you may want a house
you may want a new car you may want a new experience a new vacation but you're going
to have to drag your body to work every day to make the money to pay for those things and yes
you may arrive at your goals but you may have to work harder and it may take some time to get it
there is another state of mind and body that you can live in and that's called living in creation
and it's the exact opposite of living in survival if the hormones of stress create
incoherence in the brain as well as incoherence in the heart what we've found is that when people are
living by those states what if they had the ability to go from a narrow focus or what's
called the convergent focus to what's called a divergent focus or a broad focus or an open focus
and it turns out when people take their attention off their body when they take their attention off
the people in their lives when they're no longer putting any attention on the things
they own like their cell phone their computer the car they're not thinking about the place
they need to go or the place they're sitting and they're not thinking about time in and of itself
they are disinvesting all of their attention and all of their energy out of this three-dimensional
reality because they have no attention on it it makes sense then that they're beginning
to change their brain state so then we've taught people how to broaden their focus
and when they open their focus and sense nothing but space when they open their awareness
and they tune in to the energy or the frequency out here and instead of putting their attention
on the matter they're putting their attention on energy the act of opening their awareness
causes them to stop thinking to stop analyzing and if they're no longer thinking
and they're no longer analyzing they're no longer activating these circuits in the brain all of a
sudden they begin to slow down brain activity and they start getting beyond their analytical mind
and as they suppress the neocortex the memory bank of the autobiographical self
they begin to suppress everything known in their three-dimensional reality and they turn off the
neocortex they begin to regulate their brainwaves and slow them down all of a sudden something
magical happens the act of opening their awareness causes different compartments of the brain that
were subdivided like a house against itself all of a sudden to begin to synchronize to begin to unify
you start to seek neurons beginning to join larger communities of neurons what was once an incoherent
brain begins to become more organized and more coherent now the chronic stress creates a thyroid
condition called graves disease and the person develops what's called myasthenia gravis and the
side effect of that aside from a tremendous lack of energy is double vision now this person said
i've created this condition now that i understood that i've mismanaged my thoughts and feelings and
my emotional reactions if i created this condition by pushing the genetic buttons every single day
and it's taken me a couple years i lost my marriage i lost my business i have to get
beyond that story and i have to tell a new story i have to start believing in my future more than
i've been believing in my past is it possible then that i can begin to make those significant changes
and as the person started overcoming the stress hormones and taught her brain and
body had to create coherence the side effect of it was the body came back to balance
her vision is now perfect her thyroid hormones are moving back into balance and she's moved her brain
and body back into homeostasis and in a sense then she healed herself of the condition because her
autonomic nervous system got back into doing its job which is to create order and balance so then
when we live in two states of mind and body living in survival is living in our animal state when we
live in survival we live in stress and we live in stress there's contraction that takes place in the
body and because we're using a lot of the body's resources we experience what's called catabolism
or tissue breakdown when the body's in that state there's disease or imbalance there's degeneration
that takes place in the body the emotions of fear anger sadness are the primary emotions of survival
the self comes first when you're living in that state all of your attention is on your environment
all of your attention is on your body all of your attention is on time there's always energy lost in
the system we're living in emergency mode we're narrow focused or object focused we experience
separation we're determining reality with our senses in other words if we can't see it if we
can't smell it if we can't taste it if we can't hear it we can't feel it it doesn't exist we're
living by cause and effect we're waiting for our environment to change to give us the relief
from the discomfort that we're feeling inside of us in survival and stress we don't see many
possibilities because it's not a time to create the brain and heart function in a very incoherent
state and in survival we are craving the known because the unknown is just too much of a scary
place now when we begin to create the creative state we could call that the divine aspect of us
in creation the brain and body move back into homeostasis there's an expansion of
energy or release of energy from the tissues the body goes into anabolism or tissue repair
there's health there's order there's regeneration taking place in the body
elevated heartfelt emotions like love joy trust knowingness gratitude begin to mobilize
all these new chemicals that begin to repair and regenerate the body when we're in this heartfelt
state we tend to be less selfish and more selfless we have our attention now no longer on our body
on the things in our life the people in our life on our environment or on time itself energy is
always created in the creative process there's growth and repair we broaden or open our focus
and when we do that properly we start feeling less separate and more connected to something
greater we start to imagine and dream of a reality beyond our senses now we're
interested in causing an effect we're looking at all possibilities instead of limited possibilities
the brain and heart go into coherence and now the unknown becomes the adventure
why is that important because if we're going to create something new in our life
we have to crave the unknown now that i've shown you the difference between living and survival
and living in creation i want to explore the different brain wave states and what you can do
to use your mind to begin to consciously change your own brain waves in the next episode i want
to show you what's happening inside your head when you live in survival and when you live in creation
that is coherence versus incoherence i'm your host dr joe dispenza for rewired and i hope
to see you in the next episode where we go beyond the ordinary into the extraordinary
thank you for watching this original gaia presentation
you can now start your free trial to gaia and stream the complete series rewired with dr joe
dispenza now by clicking our link in the description thanks and we'll see you again
soon
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