Have you ever heard the phrase by Wayne Dyer -
"if you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change"? He's basically saying that if we consider something from a different viewpoint, then it can alter the way we see it. It's all about our perception really. Let me give you another way of looking at this idea. 4 people lined up looking out of the office window. Fred looks out of the window and sees a big rain cloud. Carol notices a couple walking, hand in hand. Tom sees the big apple tree in full blossom across the car park. Jenny notices how full the car park is. Same view, each person noticing something different. What WE see or notice, is never the whole picture. We see what we want to see, what we're influenced into seeing and what we choose to see – this is our perception. Our perception of something creates an emotion. And that emotion releases chemicals into the body. Positive, comfortable, loving and happy emotions release happy chemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin. Our body loves these. These chemicals are associated with being relaxed, feeling good, helping the body to work effectively and efficiently and also with sleeping well and healing. Feelings and emotions around negativity, unhappiness, guilt, confusion, uncertainty etc. cause the release of chemicals such as histamine, adrenaline or cortisol. They are released to combat something which is (or more importantly the body THINKS is happening to us). These chemicals might close down some of our body's systems or restrict their effectiveness because the body is preparing us for fight, flight or freeze – the protection mode. These chemicals are great (and necessary) for occasional use, but prolonged use means that the other systems will be not be working at their optimum level or capacity and we may become ill. The longer-term effect of all these chemicals is chronic INFLAMMATION. As difficult as the COVID situation is right now, we can choose to focus on the current situation and have more stress hormones pumped through us (which we probably don't actually realise is happening), OR we can choose to focus on things we know make us feel good and have more serotonin flowing through our blood. Serotonin and happy hormones create a healing internal environment, cortisol doesn’t. What we choose to focus on won't change a situation, but it most will definitely will change our perception. Focus changes our perception. The perception brings the emotion. The emotion releases the chemicals. The chemicals make our body physically and mentally settled or unsettled. Remember you choose what to spend your time and energy focussing on. You can CHOOSE how to feel. Remember it’s the EMOTION which releases the chemical, so all we have to do is create a state of mind where we can actually feel that happy, content, relaxed, loving emotion. Your body doesn’t care whether its real or not. It just need to register the emotion. So, you can watch happy films, read some happy literature, close your eyes and dream of being on holiday. Browse some holiday brochures. Sit in the garden. Go for a walk. Eat some yummy food. Whatever floats your boat and will keep you in a continued state of 'feel good'? Do that then!
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