Emotions are universal. Think about pictures brought to us from distant countries through satellite link or newspapers. Even before you hear the story, or read the accompanying article, you can make a guess at what is being experienced by the people in the picture. While we may not speak their language or know much about their culture, we can read joy, anger, embarrassment, frustration, or fear in their eyes or in their body language. Emotions link us together at a very basic, instinctual level. We all know what it feels like at a gut level to experience happiness or great anger. Emotions are a powerful force in our lives.

The broad questions relating to this dimension are:

• How does emotional health affect your “quality of life” or your ability to live?
• How does emotional health affect your physical health?

Why Self-Care?

Laying the Foundation for Wellness

Guilty Pleasures

A Brick in the Foundation: Social Support

A Brick in the Foundation: Physical Health

Holiday Markers

A Brick in the Foundation: Environmental Health

A Brick in the Foundation: Spirituality

A Brick in the Foundation: Intellectual Health

Finding Your Balance Point

The How To

The How To - Muscle Relaxation

Quality of Life

Life is about contrasts. How would you know what happy feels like if you had never had a moment of sadness? How would you know elation if you never felt frustration? While contrast is inevitable, I would be willing to bet that most of us would rather have more moments of happiness than sadness or frustration.

The power of emotions can be overwhelming. Sometimes our emotions seem to have more control over what we experience than our logical self. How many times have you gotten really good news, and then no matter what else happened that day, you felt like you were invincible? Or how many times has some minor setback occurred first thing in the morning and nothing else seemed to go right the rest of the day? Do you find that whatever emotion you focus on gives you more of the same?

Our emotions are often linked to our perception of a situation. Depending on our frame of mind and past experience, we can have a completely different viewpoint about the exact same event as another person. Our bodies are very smart; they remember how different situations make us feel. When that situation comes up again, our bodies seem to produce those emotions whether we want them or not.

Sometimes we can see the role of emotions in our lives, and sometimes we are blind to it. Have you ever had a day where after an experience you are left with feelings you can’t even name? Do those feelings keep you from doing something you want?

Emotions can lead us to accomplish things that we never would have thought possible. They can also take us into a dark hole. But, do those emotions have any affect on our physical health?

Physical Health

When you think about being happy, or sad, or angry, where do you feel it in your body? Do you consider an emotion as something that is specifically confined to an area in the brain?

Do a small experiment. Close your eyes and think of the last time that you were really, really, angry. Think of it in as much detail as you can – what did the person(s) say to you, what did you say, what was the specific argument or situation. Now, how do you feel? How does your belly feel? How do your muscles feel? What’s your breathing like? Okay, now let that experience go, close your eyes again and take a couple deep breaths. Now do the same thing, but think of the last time you felt true joy or happiness. Again, think of it in as much detail as you can. How does your body feel this time?

An emotion is a whole body experience, not an experience that is limited to an intellectual corner of your brain. Science is beginning to show exactly how this works.

Dr. Candace Pert, Ph.D., is a researcher who has spent many years studying how the body and the mind process emotions. Through the course of her research, she found that when someone experiences an emotion, the body responds by releasing chemical messengers called neuropeptides. These messengers deliver their signals by fitting into a cell like a key. The cells that are “listening” for these messages have a receptor, like a lock, that allows a specific neuropeptide to fit in. When the lock and key match, that cell, and thus your brain, knows that you are experiencing a specific emotion.

Once Dr. Pert learned how the body processes and understands emotions, she set out to find out where the receptors (or “locks”) were. What she found was truly astonishing. While there are centers in your brain that are overall processors of emotions, there are cells all over your body with receptors for emotional signals. These cells are in your immune system, in your blood, in your bones – everywhere. Your whole body experiences emotions. Your body also holds memories of emotions in these same cells. So, when you feel anger, you are affecting your entire body. When you experience joy, you are affecting your entire body.

Research shows that negative emotions negatively affect the immune system. The sadder you are, the more susceptible you are to illness. People who use humor as a tool or who are more optimistic tend to live longer.

What does this mean for you?

As with any of the dimensions I have been talking about, awareness if the first step. Once you can identify the role of emotions in your life, you can take steps to make change. Take a moment and think about this past week. How much of this week were you happy, sad, scared, frustrated, excited, joyful, or angry? If you can think of your emotions as making up a pie chart, how much of that circle is filled in by positive emotions and how much is filled in by negative emotions?

So, knowing that your emotions can color your perception and can biologically make that perception seem like it is written in stone, how can you change how you feel? Pretending you’re happy while you stuff your true feelings inside doesn’t do your body any good, because your body will hold on to those feelings. Instead, you want to try to work at slowly changing your perception of your day. Build towards a more positive perception because once you get the ball rolling in that direction, it is much easier to keep it rolling. Try this exercise:

• Close your eyes and begin to focus on your breath.
  
  
• When you feel like you are focused on your breath, bring to your mind five experiences during the day that you are grateful for. Really bring forward all the details of the experiences. They may be small (someone held a door for you when you were carrying something heavy) or large (a great conversation, a promotion).
  
  
• As you breathe, let the emotions that come with these experiences grow and expand, imagine that you can bring these feelings to every cell in your body.
  
  
• Set your intention to continue to look for these experiences each day.