During the 1980s, groundbreaking research by
neuroscientists, neuroanatomists, and molecular biologists offered hope to
those who are chronically anxious, prone to worry, subject to panic attacks,
depressed and other negative emotions (stuck in grief, etc.). That research
continued to be espoused in books like Feeling Good by David D. Burns in 2008
and recently in books like How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Barrett. The gist of
all of these books and research is that emotions are controlled by our body
chemistry, but the good news is that we control that chemistry. Turns out, our thoughts and our habits control that system. For
example, you choose whether or not to intake opioids and other chemicals that
you introduce to your body. At first
these “mind-altering drugs” make you feel good by manipulating this body
chemistry. But after a while when these feel good biochemicals, such as
dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins(d.o.s.e.), are depleted, you take
these drugs not to feel good, but so you don’t feel bad. Since emotional
resources are limited, your body no longer has the capacity to flood your
system with these happy hormones(neurotransmitters), regardless of how much of these foreign substances you
ingest. You take more, or inject more
and more of these drugs to feel progressively worse. This pattern can lead to
all the feelings you’re trying to avoid and ultimately to overdoes and suicide.
You choose whether or not to eat responsibly and to exercise, both of which
have a dramatic impact on releasing these happy hormones (d.o.s.e.). You choose
what you think about. You can focus on some negative memory or event or you can
choose to think about something good or happy. All of this affects whether or
not your body is releasing d.o.s.e. or powerful chemicals such as adrenalin and
cortisol, both of which can make you feel worse than you already do. Your
nervous system tries to accommodate the way you want to feel.
Body chemistry is complicated. If you study the naturally occurring
chemicals in your entire nervous system (your whole body), then you will become
familiar with terms like synaptic connections, neuron-firing patterns,
biochemical reactions, neurotransmitters, synapses and receptor cells. These
body actions are the tip of the biochemical iceberg that influence your
emotions. You will learn that “gut-reaction” is an actual physical and
biochemical reality. Turns out there are more emotional-controlling biochemicals
in your gut than in your brain.
If your formative years were in the 60s and 70s, as mine
was, you heard the term “bummed out.”
This term originated with hippies as they dealt with the aftermath of
drug experiences from psychedelic drugs such as LSD and “magic mushrooms.” No doubt a “good trip” was nothing short of
incredible—for example, seeing the notes coming out of the musical instruments,
seeing the process of photosynthesis in a leaf. But the body had shot its wad
and because of limited emotional resources these flower children were left with
nothing but neurotransmitters such as cortisol in their system and bad feelings.
Worse than that were the “bad trips” when the experience was negative and even
horrifying.
Descartes is credited with saying, “I think, therefore I am.”
If you want to overcome negative emotions, you must start by altering what you
think about at any given time of day. Your thoughts, because of all of the
above, control much of how you feel. The lines from the song Whistle a Happy
Tune in The King and I include, “Make believe you’re brave and the trick will
take you far. You can be as brave as you make believe you are.” To overcome
negative emotions, you must discover and nurture positive emotions. Is it as simple as that? Not really, but it's a good start toward feeling good.
Feeling "bummed out"? “A happy tune” can change those
feelings in a hurry.
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