When we place our awareness on Fear-Based beliefs and thoughts, our awareness is in the lower or ego-mind level. We are concerned only with getting our own self-interests satisfied. This means getting security; getting enough sex, food and stimulation; and getting power through being right, manipulating people, claiming territory or getting more possessions, prestige, fame, recognition or achievement. On this low level of consciousness—which is where most people in the world spend most of their time—we are primarily concerned with getting rather than giving. All of these positions are based on fear, the fear that there won’t be enough to go around, that we won’t get our fair share, that our rights may be violated, or that we won’t be accorded recognition or prestige. While beliefs and thoughts on this lower level of consciousness may appear to bring temporary pleasure, they almost never produce lasting happiness or satisfaction.

Keeping our awareness on fear-based beliefs and thoughts leads us to think about past memories which trigger either guilt or resentment. Alternatively, we may entertain concern or worries regarding problems that we imagine may confront us in future. We feel constantly threatened and fearful and we make plans to defend ourselves against every contingency that may arise from the hostile, threatening world we perceive around us. We tend to view other people as rivals and our minds are filled with constant chatter as we judge and condemn others.

Amid such chaos, inner peace is impossible. By perceiving everything in our lives through a filter of fear-based beliefs, we see everyone and everything as a threat to our comfort, security and possessions. We feel separated and alone from other people and we are at the mercy of the entire gamut of negative emotions.

These destructive feelings keep our fight or flight response constantly simmering. Our bodies exist in a state of tension and emergency with ail systems GO. Glucocorticoid secreted by the adrenal glands shuts down part of the immune system. Blood is also drawn away from the skin and mucosal areas in the nose and throat and directed to the large body muscles instead. When we feel negative, the mouth becomes dry and the acidity of the nasal mucosa is reduced, lowering our resisting to invading viruses.

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In 1970, Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling started a medical controversy with his book Vitamin C and the Common Cold. Few people today question that vitamin C and the Common Cold. Few people today question that vitamin C relieves symptoms and shortens the duration of the common cold. But both the public and the scientific community are concerned by the ever-increasing dosages being recommended by many contemporary practitioners.

For example, at first Pauling recommended 250 to 1,000 mg of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) daily to prevent colds and infections. Should a cold appear, he recommended increasing intake to 1 to 10 g daily, depending on one’s personal tolerance to vitamin C and on the severity of the infection. Nowadays, Pauling recommends 10 g a day as a prophylactic dose, while if you get a cold, the dose is 2 g per hour.

Meanwhile, other doctors have suggested amounts as high as 25 to 100 g per day to be taken during a cold. Some doctors find that 80 to 90 percent of the amount you can tolerate without getting diarrhea is effective.

During controlled trials, these enormous doses have shown little discernible advantage over smaller amounts.

As a result, many nutritionists today believe that, in their zeal to prove its cold-fighting properties, the pioneers of vitamin C therapy have overlooked two important factors. They are:

1. When tested under controlled conditions, relatively small daily doses of vitamin C (in the 3 to 5 g range) have achieved the same results as megadoses. Moreover, these very large doses may cause stomach gas, heartburn or diarrhea.

2. To achieve its maximum biological activity, vitamin C must interact with adequate amounts of other vitamins and minerals such as vitamin A and E, the B-complex and zinc. By focusing exclusively on vitamin

C, and ignoring the role of these other essential nutrients, vitamin C therapists arc failing to maximize the full benefits of vitamin C. By working synergistically with other essential nutrients, smaller amounts of vitamin C can enhance immunocompetence more effectively than can large doses of vitamin C alone.

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Other stress mechanisms triggered by beliefs, thoughts and emotional states can affect the central nervous system or the endocrine system, leading to vasomotor instability. When a person becomes enraged, angered or hostile, for example, the fight-or-flight response is invoked, causing constriction of arteries throughout the body. Within minutes, this condition can cut blood supplies to the heart muscle, precipitating sudden cardiac death, a heart attack or severe angina. The existence of this emotional link to heart disease has been thoroughly documented. But few researchers have bothered to investigate the fact that this same mechanism constricts blood vessels in nasal passages, reducing blood supply to the nose area and causing nasal congestion, and inhibiting the disease-resisting powers of nasal mucosa and of the cilia beating in nasal passages.

Gradually, piece by piece, the results of dozens of small scale studies are contributing to the total picture. We now know for example, that feeling lonely may also significantly suppress the immune system.

Other studies have demonstrated that positive beliefs, thoughts, emotions and attitudes can enhance immunocompetence. A number of studies have shown that antibody and helper T cell counts have been significantly boosted after subjects were given a few sessions of instruction in deep relaxation and creative mental imagery.

Basically, then, it has been found that prolonged stress, depression or other negative emotional states suppress the immune system while positive beliefs, thoughts, emotions and attitudes enhance our immunocompetence. While the benefits of Positivism have been most clearly identified in the link between emotions and immunity, strong and irrefutable evidence is also emerging to show that diet and exercise are also powerful tools for boosting immunity.

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Naturally, this advice applies only if you feel up to walking outdoors. You certainly should not walk if you have a fever or the flu or if you feel at all weak or fatigued. However, a brisk walk of three to four miles stimulates the entire immune system. It also accelerates the absorption and metabolism of nutrients essential to immunocompetence.

Continuous rhythmic exercise outdoors opens up the nasal passages and makes breathing easier. And it stimulates production of opiate-like endorphins in the brain that kill the pain and discomfort of cold symptoms.

Alternatively, you may practice any form of continuous rhythmic exercise such as jogging, bicycling, swimming in warm water, or local cross-country skiing. If you pedal a stationary bicycle, try to use it near an open window or on a porch where you can breathe fresh air.

Once the exercise is over, stay indoors and rest and relax for the remainder of the day.

Important Caution: walking or other exercise is suggested only to persons who are already physically fit and healthy, who regularly perform this same exercise at least several times each week, and who are able to walk or exercise without any ill effects. Do not suddenly begin to exercise if you are not already fit and healthy enough to complete the exercise without any risk to your health.

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A key element of the answer is a bask principle of modem psychology—that there are only two root emotions, fear and love. All fear-based feelings are negative, and they include anger, hostility, guilt, resentment, bitterness, frustration, envy, dissatisfaction, anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness and depression. All love-based feelings are positive, and they include joy, peace, generosity, forgiveness, compassion and contentment.

Applying this to Smith and Jones, we see that by viewing life through a filter of fear-based beliefs, Smith perceived a hostile, unfriendly and threatening world. Such a negative way of looking at things intensifies all forms of headache and all types of dysfunctions.

By contrast, Jones viewed life through a filter of love-based beliefs, as a result of which he perceived a friendly, loving and nonthreatening world. Consequently, be remained free of headaches and disease, he felt great, and he continued to enjoy a high level of wellness.

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