Who doesn’t want to experience the maximum amount of pleasure in life?  After all, fun is important.  It keeps you ageless.  What if I told you that a single, tiny molecule produced by your own body is the key to experiencing pleasure and that all you have to do is follow a healthy lifestyle, including thinking positive thoughts?  In other words, taking good care of yourself enhances your ability to produce an amazing molecule that can allow you to live a pleasure-filled life. The amazing molecule that I am talking about is called nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide is a gas that your body makes.  It is a free radical (the good kind, just as there is good cholesterol) that actually resets your “power grid” and reboots your body much in the same way that rebooting your computer makes it work better.  With enough nitric oxide in your body, your blood vessel walls relax allowing more life-supporting oxygen and other nutrients to flood your heart, brain and internal organs.  The effect of more nitric oxide is like adding more lanes to the highway during rush hour to ease traffic jams; everything moves more quickly and smoothly and everyone is much happier as a result.

Because of its beneficial effects, some prescription drugs rely on nitric oxide as their mechanism of action.  For example, nitroglycerin releases nitric oxide to increase blood flow to the heart to ease chest pain in patients with angina. Viagra also works in much the same way to help men achieve and maintain erections.  Of course, nitric oxide does a whole lot more than this, and you don’t need to take a drug to benefit! 
In fact, all you have to do is set your thoughts and intentions.  

The Mind-Body Connection and Nitric Oxide
You have probably heard that positive thoughts can improve your health.  One reason this is true is because of the nitric oxide connection. When you have a thought such as “I am completely capable of and willing to change for the better,” this positive and powerful sentiment spontaneously sends nitric oxide to all of your cells.  It literally acts as a bridge between the “thinking” and “non-thinking” parts of your brain, rapidly telling the part of your brain that controls breathing and heart rate to decrease stress throughout your entire body.  And saying your positive thoughts out loud in the form of affirmations is even more beneficial.  (For some of my favorite affirmations, click here.)

Setting positive thoughts is the exact opposite of playing the “victim role.”  It doesn’t mean you can’t have or experience negative emotions.  It just means that you need to learn how to express those emotions – such as fear, grief, and anger – in a healthy way. Releasing grief and resentment regularly, and learning to cultivate more joy and compassion will allow you to take the positive steps to change any situation that doesn’t serve you. Plus, positive thinking works along with The Law of Attraction and changes your vibrational output as well as your inner molecules.

How To Increase Your Levels of Nitric Oxide Now

Most Americans don’t have enough nitric oxide in their bodies, especially as they get older.  Many factors contribute to this situation, including obesity, lack of exercise, poor nutrition, smoking, and stress.  The good news is, no matter how low your nitric oxide levels are you can take action right now to increase them significantly.  Here’s how: 

•    Live a healthy lifestyle. Assume an empowered stance in your life.  You can start by eating nutritious foods, drinking enough water, getting sufficient sleep, and increasing pleasure 

•    Choose uplifting thoughts.  Start by saying, “Every day is full of joyous opportunities.” Create or find affirmations that you can say every day to help boost your creation of nitric oxide.  You can also use my book The Secret Pleasures of Menopause Playbook or eBook to learn how other women are creating life-giving pleasure and more amazing nitric oxide

•    Be in touch with and learn to express your emotions. The worst thing you can do is hold onto destructive emotions. Negative emotions such as anger, fear and worry deplete nitric oxide. Learn how to get off the negative spiral by expressing your emotions in a health way 

•    Work with a health care professional.  Conditions such as high blood pressure, poor lipid profile, or diabetes can contribute to low levels of nitric oxide.  Be sure to work with your health care professional to get these conditions under control.  Remember there are many good natural alternatives to drugs for these conditions, although sometimes prescriptions drugs are necessary.

•    Increase your pleasure.  Activities like yoga, massage, acupuncture, listening to calming music, and laughing (especially good belly laughs), not to mention orgasms and having sex, have all been shown to stimulate the production of nitric oxide. In turn, sufficient amounts of nitric oxide trigger more positive emotions, including joy, resilience, and hope.  Since nitric oxide can’t be stored up, the key is to get regular doses of healthy pleasure!

How have you learned to create more pleasure into your life?  Do you feel a difference in your physical health, your relationships?  Please share your experiences.

Editor's Note: Dr. Christiane Northrup will be appearing at I Can Do It! London 2015 in the UK on Sunday 6 September. Click the banner below to book your place at the event: