As human beings, we have three avenues to express ourselves in the world: our thoughts, emotions, and physical bodies. We can be fired up or intellectually drained, sad or uplifted, tired or energetic. With all the diversity of various expressions we have, our thoughts, emotions, and our body always synchronize with each other.
For example, somebody pushes you in a crowded subway. Your mood plunges and you get a headache. Then, you start thinking about how miserable you are in this morning commute.
Boom!
Your emotions, body, and thoughts have now conspired to ruin your day.
Can you do something to manipulate the trio in your favor? And if you can, where do you start?
Thoughts, feelings, actions: They always tune in to the strongest signal
If one shows up with the most dominant agenda, the other two will drop theirs and follow. Remember, when you wake up feeling right and nothing (even being stuck on the subway due to “the train traffic ahead of us”) can mess with you?
It does not matter if the agenda is positive or negative. What matters is how strong it is, relative to the agendas of the other two. That’s why a tiny thing, such as a cup of coffee, can both ruin and make your day sometimes.
The signal-forming agendas of your thoughts, emotions, and physical body can come from either an outside influence or directly from you.
Positive and negative information from the outside is processed through our cognitive or emotional functions. That’s what they are there for. Unless there is a stronger agenda of its own, our body can only follow suit. It adjusts to what the thoughts or emotions tell it. So, among the three, our thoughts and our emotions are most susceptible to the outside influence. They frequently become a door for negativity to enter in our life.
But of course, if we relied on the world to serve us a good piece of news every morning, we’d only take a passive role in bringing the turbulent trio to harmony. To play a proactive role, we arm ourselves with meditation courses and self-help books. We cannot wait to learn how to enforce positive thinking and ways to stay present!
Yet, being the immediate gratification seekers that we are, we do not have the patience to stick to the diligent practice. Until we train them, our thoughts and emotions are like unruly puppies. They will keep running in different directions regardless of what we ask them to do.
We want to stop negative self-talk and end up entertaining it the entire cardio session. We want to focus on positive emotions but feel like a soggy pizza slice. It is almost as if we do not get to choose our thoughts and our emotions.
With our body, it’s different. Whichever way we choose to treat it is how it is going to feel.
Get a good night sleep and your body feels great, your mind performs well, and things seem to be looking up. Decide for a day that sleep is overrated, your body will go on a strike in a company of dark circles, headache, and bloating. Sleep deprivation will also quickly convince your thoughts and emotions to join the protest.
So among the three, our thoughts and emotions require a long practice to manage effectively. At the same time, our body responds to positive incentives almost immediately.
So, what’s the key to handle the entangled trio in your favor?
It seems like the body wins!
The body is less susceptible to the negative outside influence and most receptive to our own positive stimulus. It is the body that has the power to help us weather the negativity. Through the body, we can also bring the positivity, not only to how we feel physically but also to how we think and to our emotional state.
What does it mean?
You can choose to continuously give your body positive signals — from eating well, training yourself, to simply sitting straight! And the moment you do, you open the door to immediately change both your thoughts and emotions. Do it — right now!
See Also: 6 Ways To Become More Flexible In Life