Part IV dealt with derailing the learned responses while they are happening by purposefully doing something different. If this is done enough times the synapses of your brain are rewired and the new pattern takes it place.
In this part, I want to touch on some other ways to make changes in and around the emotional system. These include being mindful of the surrounding environment, how food affects you, and exercise.
Being mindful of environment means looking at what is going on around you and taking steps to change those things that negatively affect you.
My house faces east, and I love starting the morning in my living room as the sun comes in and warms the house. But a little later in the day, I find I have a hard time seeing my laptop’s screen. Having the sun in my eyes causes me to squint. Not wanting to move, I stay longer than it is comfortable. This is a simple example of environmental condition that I could easily change. Paying attention to places and circumstances that cause you stress and then avoiding them sounds easy, but you will be amazed at how often these come up. Watch for these being the trigger or at least a contributing factor to triggering some of your patterns.
Food is another contributor to our emotional states and our emotional states can effect our food intake. When I’m bored or nervous I tend to munch on things. Being able to notice this can help me control it. Also, if I haven’t eaten right I also tend to munch on high glycemic foods, which tends to cause changes in my blood sugars, which in turn tend to bring about nervous feelings and which in turn tends to me keep munching. I have been trying to level this out by eating more whole grain foods and eating more regular and wholesome diet. Foods have discernable effects on your moods and emotions, paying attention to the link between foods and your emotions can be helpful.
Exercise is a tremendous way to level out emotions. This is one of the reasons that I decided early on in this lay off to focus on getting in shape. Exercise has been shown to be more effective than today’s best anti-depressants in treating depression. Exercise, when done long enough (30+ minutes) also floods the body with positive hormones that last for extended periods of time. Exercise is also the best way to effect your moods, raising the positive emotional content of you mood. The brain uses 25% of the oxygen in your blood. Exercise increases your brain power in all brain skills by increasing the oxygen in your system.
Pay attention to the inputs you give the brain. What are the inputs that you give your brain? Do you exercise your brain in order to keep it in tip top shape. The very best exercise for the brain is a healthy and strong relationships with friends and family. Increasing healthy time with family and friends is great brain exercise. Puzzles, music, and challenging reading are also great for the brain.
The brain loves new experiences physical and mental; variety and new experiences keep the brain fresh. Learning the steps of a new dance or how to juggle is great exercise for the brain. You brains are resilient and constantly growing or if unused they are decaying. It is use it or lose it when it comes to the body or the brain.
Acting and the brain
The brain has a hard time distinguishing what is real and what made up. If you get deeply involved with a movie your body reacts with hormones that makes changes to your body. The same is so with acting. People who play the parts of others that have cancer have an increased risk of cancer themselves.
Acting is a way to make changes to your brain. If you act in a certain way for long enough, you brain synapses will change in the same way that they will with interrupting patterns.
Here is short video on how this can work with laughing. Parts of this seem a little hokey, but it works. By acting the way you want to be you can change your mood over time. Be mindful of your emotions as you watch this video. Do they change? If you watch it a second time do they still change.
Laughing Video:
Any finally, with all of these different methods meditation is a helpful in learning how to quiet the mind enabling the ability to do this type of work in real time. Starting meditating is as easy as sitting calmly and paying attention to your breath as it enters and leaves your body. There is many great references and places to get support. You don’t have to be able to contort your body into the pretzel to meditate, sitting in a comfortable chair will work. Meditation is not a spiritual activity in itself, and it beneficial no matter what your spiritual leanings are.
That is it for this post. These are some of the easy additional things that you can look at for making changes to your emotional makeup. In the next post I will provide a few resources for getting more information.
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