Mind Over Matter

Title: Mind Over Matter
Medium: Mixed Media Upcycled Plastic, Oil on Treated Wood
Genre: Semi Abstract ReliefSize: 20"x 14"x 3"
Year: 2016
Artist Lisa Lej
Value US$200
 
Recently I have fallen ill of the Flu and I am currently still in the process of recovery. From my reading I have been able to apply the knowledge gained to my current scenario in helping myself understand how I have gotten ill of this virus how to persevere and how to recover quickly. As a naturalist I try to refrain from taking pharmaceutical drugs as I believe that everything comes from nature and it is best to go there for healing. I have realised that before catching this virus I was very stressed out about some issues that popped up and that I had to find solutions. This caused me to be extremely worried and anxious about the matter.
Whenever I am extremely stressed I realized that my immune system drops and I become vulnerable to viruses and usually I would catch a cold or flu which is exactly what happened a couple weeks ago. This is a psychological factor that contributed to me becoming ill for my mind was way too preoccupied with problems that it caused negative emotions which resulted in a negative physical state of being. I have been observing that on days when I am happy and relaxed my symptoms are allayed and days when I am extremely stressed my symptoms are very strong and so I try to relax more and forget about my problems.
There is also a social factor that contributes to the cause, as well as the recovery of this flu for I have also observed that prior to catching this virus there were several persons within my social setting who had it who I had to interact with continuously without taking caution. On the other end they have been very supportive and helpful in keeping me happy which helps to relieve me of all my worries.
 I am a part of a musical comedy show and I realized that I would be ill all day in bed just counting the hours till show time then mystically I would feel so much better and have the strength to perform but after the show I would feel ill again and go home to rest. Being positively active around positive people really helps to endure and recover from illness. This morning I woke up ill as I was worried so I went out to laze on the beach which resulted in me feeling great after returning home from the beach. Overall I look at myself and compare with my friends who have the flu and they still suffer from coughs and voice sounding crackled but mine is back to normal and not so much coughing. They have been taking medicine I have been taking it easy and eating of nature.
Jane Ogden’s  (2012) study found the following:
The psycho aspects of health and illness were described in terms of cognitions (e.g. expectations of health), emotions (e.g. fear of treatment) and behaviours (e.g. smoking, diet, exercise or alcohol consumption). (3) the social aspects of health were described in terms of social norms of behaviour (e.g. the social norm of smoking or not smoking), pressures to change behaviour (e.g. peer group expectations, parental pressure), social values on health (e.g. whether health was regarded as a good or a bad thing), social class, the environment and ethnicity. (p.7)
Also Wikipedia.com has stated that, “Psychological factors can affect health directly. For example, chronically occurring environmental stressors affecting the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, cumulatively, can harm health. Behavioral factors can also affect a person's health. For example, certain behaviors can, over time, harm (smoking or consuming excessive amounts of alcohol) or enhance health (engaging in exercise).”
 
·       How can one use psychology to prevent illness?
·       How can one choose the way she socialize in order to prevent illness?
 
Resources:
Jane Ogden.  (2012). The Psychology of Health and Illness Retrieved Feb. 5, 2018.
https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/249132/mod_book/chapter/145162/Ogden%20-%20The%20Psychology%20of%20Health%20and%20Illnessbk.pdf
Wikipedia. (2017). Health Psychology. Retrieved Feb. 5, 2018.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology