Managing Emotions

Our thoughts, emotions and our behavior ALL effect our body chemistry. Just climbing out of bed in the morning and getting into a hot shower or bath, for example, elevates our levels of serotonin -- "nature's natural anti- depressant" -- and makes it easier for us to get into a positive frame of mind. When we don't make use of the medicine chest nature put inside of us and learn how to calm and soothe ourselves through daily, health enhancing activities, we may want to turn to synthetic or artificial solutions to achieve a state of well being. We might grab a substance like alcohol, drugs, or food to unwind, calm down or de-stress.

When you’re feeling low or depressed, it might seem that alcohol lifts your mood to feel more like your old self and helps you to cope with life. These feelings are not long-lasting, and research has shown there to be a significant connection between alcohol and Depression.

What happens when feelings such as anger, grief or dissatisfaction are ignored, denied or covered up for long periods of time? The good news is that violence, suicide or drinking oneself silly do not have to be the only options! Competent therapists exist. There is help available, and there are constructive ways of dealing with strong emotions.

If recent scientific research on happiness -- and there has been quite a bit -- has proved anything, it's that happiness is not a goal. It's a process. Although our tendency to be happy or not is partly inborn, it's also partly within our control. And, perhaps more surprising, happiness brings success, not the other way around.

Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States. More teens enter treatment centers because of marijuana dependence than they do for all other illegal drugs combined. Heavy marijuana use has also been proven to hinder life achievement in areas such as physical and mental health, cognitive abilities, social life and career status.

Understanding that emotions, particularly strong ones that are felt by one person are also anticipated, tracked and felt by those close to them, helps us to wrap our minds around why those we live with have such an impact on both our minds and our bodies. Why, when there is pain or tension or anger in the room, our gut tightens up or why we can't keep a straight face when someone we love is laughing.

Have you ever noticed how being around nutsy/negative people can make you feel nutsy/negative? Psychologists call this "emotional contagion" -- and there's even evolutionary reasons for why someone else's curmudgeonly ways can infect you.

Nature has built natural "anti depressants" right into our bodies that we can activate whenever we need to. It is remarkably easy to attain a "feel good" state if we just adopt a few proactive habits and keep them going. Here's what these "natural antidepressants" can do for us.

We humans pride ourselves as being the "thinking" beings on this planet. In reality, even for us, everything starts as a feeling. I firmly believe that emotions, more than thoughts, motivate our actions.

Developing the skills of emotional literacy in which we bring our emotions into balance through a simple but challenging process of feeling them and translating them into words so that they can be reflected upon inwardly and outwardly, is what allows us to become emotionally balanced and sober people.