Physiology Comes First

Emotions, attitude, and mood have a lasting affect on how “good” of a day anyone can have. Some believe they just happen and seep out of the woodwork naturally. This is a very true statement, they do come very naturally, but can also be influenced to occur more or less often and how certain attitudes come to pass depending. It can hinge on a variety of different sources. One that tends to be overlooked is an individual's physiology. It’s very easy to miss because most people don’t consciously look for it, it’s “Just something that happens” in their eyes. Physiology is the biological study of the normal functions of living organisms. To put it plainly, behaviors, tendencies, or physical state in that moment in relation to the mood or attitude that is about to be present. I say “about to be present” because the way your body acts physically in any given situation influences how we react to the emotions about to be present. For example, if something inconvenient happens to an individual, it could cause a bunch of negative emotions to rise in your overall attitude. Then the physiology comes into play. Your body physically and mentally “prepare” to be in said bad mood. You may slouch your shoulders, sigh, or mutter under your breath, could be any number of things. If someone were wanting to alter or change their mood to avert the negative, a change in one's state is in order. Do the opposite of the negative or something different from the expected reaction. So don't slouch or sigh, or say you feel tired. Do something like fix your posture, yell to pump yourself up. One I’ve heard from others as well is bark. “If you saw someone doing that, how would you feel? You’d probably think that person is crazy or weird. When in reality you’re doing something good for yourself to alter the mood that could potentially present and avoid a negative experience for yourself. Being able to be self aware of your emotions and the states you are in at given times is key to bringing the best out of a situation. Moving yourself out of your comfort zone, like the barking mentioned earlier is also a good exercise to push yourself for something new and better. Discomfort can be one of the greatest learning processes, because you are guaranteed to get something new every time. You’ll notice as well that you approach situations differently and your overall demeanor will be different as well. Another example that everyone can probably relate to, is getting out of bed in the morning. Sometimes you just don’t feel like getting out of bed. You’re comfortable and telling yourself just five more minutes and so forth. So since your body is in the physical state to get ready for sleep, those thoughts and functions then come into play and you go back to sleep. On the flip side you just need to move. If you move around or jump up out of bed and stretch, it will make you more revitalized and energetic to proceed with the day's events. A way to practice this besides pushing to get out of your comfort zone, is asking two questions to yourself about every mood you are in. First is “Why?” if you ask yourself, “why am I sad?’ or “why am I feeling so good?” it helps you to be able to consciously recognize and acknowledge the physiology behind the small things you do, like body language, how you articulate your words, and overall how you cope with any given situation. The second question is “What can I learn from this?” Learning lessons through trial and error is what we as human beings do. Many take failures as they come with the negative mental approach, but if you say, “I failed” and don’t try again you’ll leave feeling defeated and down in the dumps. Once again though if you ask, “What can I learn from this?” You now are brought into a state of curiosity and actively think of how you can improve from that experience. Pretty much the one we've all heard about learning from our mistakes. Preferably the word mistakes should be failures. Mistakes are things that we did wrong and sometimes we do things right and still don't succeed. This is all part of the mental side of physiology where there is a negative there is potentially always a positive side present that we don't usually identify unless we examine ourselves for it during that point in time. Another way of looking at it is, it's creating a filter that we can practice and overall be the best we can be every second of our lives. If the filter is built off negativity it will spiral out of control and hold us down. People essentially become the thing holding them back when you just need a change in your physical state to give you that boost mentally as well. Would you rather be trapped in a prison in your own mind that is so draining and boring or become the best version of yourself possible, all you need is a little tweak in your life and it can make all the difference. Remember, physiology Comes first and the mood and attitude are influenced by that as they follow.