Rewire Your Emotions for Health & Happiness
Our emotions have a huge impact on our physical and mental health, so rewiring our emotions is one of the most powerful things we can do to optimize our health.
All emotions have a purpose, which is to give us important information.
Survival emotions such as fear, anger, shame, and guilt are designed to tell us something is wrong - that we need to change our situation.
These emotions create chemistry in our bodies to help us survive by taking actions like fighting, running away, or freezing.
The problem is that our brains don’t know the difference between a true physical threat, for example a hungry tiger, and a threat that is just in our minds, for example disapproval from our boss or something in the news or social media.
Survival emotions create stress hormones in our bodies such as adrenaline and cortisol that are designed to help us react quickly to a threat.
After the threat is passed, our bodies are designed to return to the “rest and digest” mode, with the release of hormones that help things like digestion, regeneration, and long-term building and repair projects.
In our modern world, it’s easy to get stuck in stress chemistry - to be permanently in fight/flight mode - which is very hard on our physical and mental health.
Too much stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol over time can weaken our physical systems, including the immune system and digestive system and also contribute to mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression.
The good news is that we can intentionally shift our emotions!
Uplifting emotions such as love, joy, and gratitude create chemistry that is healing and rejuvenating for our bodies and brains.
That’s why all the “brain rewiring for health” programs incorporate elevating emotions as a key component.
Emotions are a habit, just like thoughts and actions.
To start shifting your emotional habits:
Notice which survival emotions you tend to feel often - we all have our favorites!
Choose one to work on shifting.
Make a list of things you can do to shift to uplifting emotions, such as: dance, laugh, talk with a positive friend, write a list of things you’re grateful for, etc. You want things that really change up your emotional/physical state, so high energy activities are better than passive activities like scrolling social media.
When you notice that you’re feeling the survival emotion you’re working on shifting, notice it, be with it for awhile if you need to, but - as soon as you can - shift it by doing one of the activities that elevates your emotional state.
Repeat as often as you’re able!
We’re lucky live in a time when more is being learned all the time about simple steps we can take to improve our physical and mental health!
Love,
Liz
P.S. If you’re dealing with a chronic physical or mental health challenge, it can be helpful to be in a structured brain rewiring program.
The teachers/programs that have made a huge difference for my health and happiness are:
Dynamic Neural Retraining System: www.retrainingthebrain.com
Primal Trust: www.primaltrust.org
Dr. Joe Dispenza: www.drjoedispenza.com
I don’t receive a commission from these programs, I just want everyone to know about them because of the truly groundbreaking work they are doing!
