The ability to recognize, accept, and manage our feelings play an integral role in our emotional development. How we manage our feelings may affect our health. In the book To Your Health: Gospel Perspectives on Nurturing the Mind, Body, and Spirit, by Brent Q. Hafen et al, it is said "the mind and the spirit . . . contribute to physical fitness, but can also play a part in illness . . . a large percentage of all physical problems have emotional roots. Some researchers believe that as many as half of all patients who visit physicians have physical symptoms that are directly caused by emotions; others think the figure is as high as 90 to 95 percent. Mounting scientific evidence indicates that virtually every illness may be influenced for good or bad by our emotions and attitudes that include factors such as faith and hope."

It continues "emotional stress doesn't cause disease . . . (it's an) important factor that can make us more susceptible to disease. And there is a physiological reason why: the brain controls both specific emotions and specific hormone patterns, and our hormones affect our health."

Our emotions can be divided into two types: negative and positive emotions. Our negative emotions, such as anger and frustration, increase heart rate and constrict the arteries, putting extra strain on the cardiovascular system. Our positive emotions, such as happiness and hope, stimulate the nervous system which protects the heart and reduces blood pressure.

If we are in touch with our emotions, we reduce any health risks we may face in our lives.