Thoughtober Day Two
Emotional regulation circuitry
I never thought I would ever be uttering these words -
“People need to stop feeling and start thinking”
What I actually meant was that people needed to stop being emotionally unregulated and actually start thinking about what their emotional world was telling them.
Our emotions are internal chemical messengers that give an indication of the state of our environment.
They are not to be ignored, vilified, repressed or projected.
They need to be listened to, thought about and acted upon.
I see so much dysregulation of emotions.
This means the prefrontal cortex has a weak connection to the limbic system.
Do not worry though, this can be easily strengthened if you wish it to be.
Emotional regulation is a key executive function that we need, otherwise it all becomes a bear pit with no sense, critical thought or insight to be seen.
What kind of world do you wish to live in?
An emotionally chaotic mess or a an emotionally insightful ordered approach?
Today’s task - Compassion based thoughtfulness
Compassion is all about easing the suffering and it is something that may not come naturally to you as modern life is very much full of suffering whether that is yours or you witnessing it.
So today’s task is about thinking about what you need to ease your suffering.
Simply ask yourself this -
‘What do I think I need?’
By simply inserting a think between the do and I we are already utilising a cognitive mechanism. It is more than a simple emotional need, it is now a thoughftul need.
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
Make sense, I guess there is a logic to the unlogic always... even if I am confused by my emotions if I ask myself where they might come from I can find the answer and also logic (PMS, life changes, past trauma, tiredness, unhealthy diet etc ... ) not so easy as we really have to know ourselves and be honest with ourselves to do that but that means we can trust our guts and instincts more as well!
Hi Rachel, I definitely agree that emotions are not to be ignored but understood and thought about.
Sometimes though, I find myself having emotions that I cannot connect to reality. For example I feel nostalgic, sad or not motivated but there is not apparent reason. My understanding is that emotions can be triggered by thoughts, hormonal balance, tiredness, physical inactivity so what do we do with those emotions that are somehow just a consequence of a negative thought or of a day spend working too hard? Do we rely on them? Or they are just a chemical in our brain? What I am saying is sometimes emotions can be counterproductive or a false alarm or are they always symptoms that something is going on with us? Do we always listen to them or sometimes they are just fruit of an imbalance? ( too tired, PMS, negative thinking, etc) - I want to respect my emotions but also not trusting them blindly as sometimes they do not make much sense! Thanks!