What do smiling, neurotransmitters and endorphins have in common? To answer that, we envision how we think about ourselves directly and how this reinforces the way we feel physically. Mental thought is the first step towards expressing behaviors. The cells of our bodies respond to the chemical processes that control the way neurotransmitters support brain activity
(see: http://www.benbest.com/science/anatmind/anatmd10.html) geared toward the feeling-good properties inherent in the pleasures we seek. Our thoughts activate this process. For instance, the thought of smiling not only makes our faces change by reacting to stimulated muscle contractions that social learning interprets as friendly, but it also excites endorphins to be released which gives us many great-feeling side effects like stress relief (link: http://longevity.about.com/od/lifelongbeauty/tp/smiling.htm). This is why mental health is the leading edge key to physical health.
So, what do smiling, neurotransmitters and endorphins have to do with feeling good? Once mental thought moves us toward a better-feeling place, an emotional response, like happiness can occur. The next logical place we arrive at in this process is a positive behavior. Once we are engaged in a positive direction, our cells parallel this and good health results. On the other end of the spectrum, poor health can follow when we do not allow good thoughts to come through our brains. Behaviors like complaining, telling a story based upon how terrible something is, and speaking judgmentally about others can actually pull our energy to a negative place, and again, our cells react to this by producing toxins and detrimental chemical reactions which promote a state of dis-ease. This can sometimes be experienced as depression.
Staying in a positive frame of mind as often as possible is the key to physical health. Breaking old habits consisting of negative behaviors begin once one is aware