Emotional Health

I spend most of my day at home with my kids. Doing housework, playing, feeding, cooking, taxing kids around, going to the park etc. This means I am in my head with my thoughts a lot. Sometimes I like to turn my brain off and the only way I have found to do this is to sing. When I am not singing, or referring my kids, I am thinking. You can't turn it off, it is going to happen, the only control you have is what you think!

After marrying Danny he pointed out to me often that I control my moods. In hindsight I am grateful for his assistance in realizing this, but at the time it would make me so mad. If I was grumpy after waking up, he would tell me that I chose to be grumpy. I would spend the next 30 minutes in my mind telling myself why it is okay for me to grumpy. The more I told myself it was okay, the grumpier I became. Now when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed I stop myself and acknowledge that I have a choice to make, grumpy, or happy but mine alone to choose. I will be honest, I don't always choose happy, but I don't get nearly as grumpy as I used to, because I accept that I am choosing to be grumpy.

Accepting responsibility for our thoughts and actions is sometimes hard to do, but the sooner we are willing to admit that ultimately everything that happens to us is a direct result of our thinking the easier it is to roll with the punches. President Gordon B. Hinckley gave a talk once and told us we could choose to act or react. When we are acting we are taking responsibility for ourselves. When we react our emotions take over, and we can lose control. I still get caught up in myself and like to play the blame game, because sometimes it is hard to accept responsibility for my actions. But I am learning the more I focus on making something good, the easier it is to accept responsibility.

I am a very forgiving person I don't like to hold a grudge it takes far to much energy. I like to clear the air, I try not to avoid confrontation (hard as it may be), and I am learning to apologize. This last one has been hard, but the most rewarding as I have changed my thoughts. I recognize that I get back what I give, if I am giving off positive energy that is what I will receive, and negative thoughts garner negative feedback. I've yet to be with a group of women who don't like to throw fuel on the each others fire. Once the negative comes out very few of us want to think about the positive, husband bashing comes to mind. Several years ago I recognized that by complaining about Danny the more focused I became on his faults. I made a commitment to not complain about him to anyone other than him. I can say this has only strengthen my marriage. Danny has his faults, we all do, I don't want Danny airing my dirty laundry to his friends, and I love and respect him and don't do it either.

I love to find the positive in things, and I have always had a knack for this. My mom calls me PollyAnna (if you've seen the movie you know what I am talking about, if not you missed out as a child) I prefer to live life playing the glad game. In so many of lifes hard times the only thing we can change is our attitude.

I have learned that our thoughts not only control our actions, and our words but our health as well. Danny is learning a new chiropractic technique, that deals with the emotions. At first glance it may seem a little voodoo, but I have been amazed as he has learned more and tested it out on me how powerful our thoughts and subconscious mind really is. Our thoughts really do have power over our physical well being. The following is from the chiropractor Danny is learning the technique from. Here is the link to his site that is full of wonderful information Dr. Dinoff.com.

With around 60-70,000 THOUGHTS everyday, it would be pretty hard to regulate them individually. Based on how we’re thinking, we experience or perceive FEELINGS. If you bask in that sequence of thought and feeling, expect it to solidify into EMOTIONS which are chemical and have a definitive effect on your body.

So, if you don’t like the way you are feeling, go back and change the way you are thinking. Your feelings are an “early warning” system before major chemical changes occur! Pre-empt health problems by focusing your thoughts on gratitude and thankfulness; start counting your blessings. Acknowledge that stuff happens in your life so you can learn from it. CHOOSE to be a victor, not a victim. Don’t wallow in “what happened to me” as if you’re some kind of victim in life. You get to CHOOSE! BE optimistic; it will change the way you feel and that will avert your body’s harmful EMOTIONAL (chemical) response which will protect your health (4).

Thoughts, feelings, and emotions are different stages of that “dynamic flow of information” between all of the cells in our bodies. Knowing this encourages us to properly manage our thoughts, and their direct effects caused by feelings and emotions in our lives.

Note: TRAUMA, TOXICITY, and THOUGHT are the three major stresses in our lives. Each or any combination of these three stresses can affect the way we feel and our emotions. In the preceding discussion, we looked at the power of our thoughts on our feelings and emotions because it is an area of our lives we can control. We can CHOOSE our thoughts, and in so doing, we directly affect our feelings and emotions and the health we manifest.