Survive and Thrive Emotions
Dear Friend,
To improve our health, one of the most helpful things we can do is spend more time in the “thrive” emotions and less time in the “survive” emotions.
As humans, our bodies are hardwired to experience a wide range of emotions.
We have a whole set of emotions that evolved as our ancestors were struggling to survive in a harsh world.
All those emotions have the purpose to get us to take some kind of action. For example, the survival emotions of fear and anger flood our bodies with chemistry to help us run away or fight.
There are other survival emotions, such as guilt and shame, that are the result of our ancestors living for millennia in small groups, completely dependent on each other for survival - these social emotions helped our ancestors gauge how to behave in ways that would help them survive in the group.
All the survival emotions create chemistry in our bodies to help us take action, such as adrenaline to help us run away from danger, and guilt to motivate us to change our behavior.
The chemistry of survival emotions is meant to just be experienced in short bursts, and then fade out as we take action and the dangerous situation resolves.
In our stressful modern society, however, many people are constantly experiencing survival emotions and the chemistry that goes along with them.
This is super hard on the body and the brain. For example, adrenaline is helpful in the short term to take action, but too much over the long term can cause all kinds of health problems.
Fortunately, we are also hardwired to experience another set of emotions - the “thrive” emotions.
These emotions, such as love, joy, gratitude, connection, etc., also create the release of chemicals into our bodies.
But, unlike the chemistry of the survive emotions, the chemicals released when we’re feeling the thrive emotions are healing and regenerating, and perfectly targeted to what our individual bodies and brains need most.
Scientists estimate that over 1500 different beneficial factors are released into the bloodstream when we’re feeling the thrive emotions.
That’s why a key focus of all mind/body healing programs is intentionally shifting our emotions throughout the day from the survive emotions to the thrive emotions.
What are some of your favorite ways to elevate your mood and shift from survive to thrive emotions?
Love,
Liz
P.S. The teachers/programs that have made the biggest difference for my healing 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 the truly groundbreaking work they are doing!
