Unresolved Feelings can cause Health Problems
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by Dr. R. Murali Krishna, retired president and chief operating officer, INTEGRIS Mental Health and James L. Hall Jr. Center for Mind, Body and Spirit
Unresolved feelings, such as anger and hostility, can have an adverse reaction to your overall health and can directly impact your heart health. Dr. R. Murali Krishna, president of INTEGRIS Mental Health, explains the importance of recognizing your feelings to improve both your mental and physical health.
Hi, I'm Dr. R. Murali Krishna. I'm president of INTEGRIS Mental Health. I'd like to talk to you about how unresolved feelings can cause health problems and physical changes in the body.
For example, anger and hostility is a known factor for heart disease. When you're angry, the chance of having a heart attack goes up by 230% in the next two hours.
Why does it happen? Because when one has unresolved anger that has a toxic effect on the body. It increases the blood pressure. It constricts the blood vessels. It makes the blood more clottable by increasing the activity of the fibrinogen and fibrin and the platelets. So, one needs to learn how to recognize when their anger is unhealthy, and learn ways of coping with it, and learning how to resolve them so one can have inner peace.
Hostility is one of the major factors in many diseases that contribute to our suffering. Forgiveness is an important aspect. When we were traumatized, when wrong was done to us, it's very difficult to forgive the person or the group that has caused that problem for us.
However, if we do not learn how to recognize it and how to resolve it through therapy or through learning or through interactions or through sharing, then we are the one that will suffer. Because as long as we do not forgive whatever has happened, at some point in our life, it's going to cause physical and emotional problems that are clearly seen.
So learning to resolve these feelings is as important as taking good care for your physical health. Because these unresolved emotions are toxic to the body and they affect you in an adverse way. But you can learn ways of overcoming them to lead a healthy and peaceful life. Good luck.