Most people go through a typical day experiencing various states of feelings and emotions. These range from good or positive to harmful or what we might consider negative. When dealing with a negative mindset, we generally chalk it up to just having a bad day. While it is true that some days are better (circumstantially) than others, we can intentionally change our feelings and emotions when we realize that we are in a detrimental state of mind.
Negative thoughts and emotions affect our bodies in many ways. Stress accounts for approximately 90% of all Doctor visits. Science continues to reveal how emotional stress affects all systems of the body including the musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, and reproductive systems. Our feelings, and the connection between our minds and our bodies is powerful and this manifests in ways we could not imagine.
Highly respected Neuroscientist Dr. Candice Pert who pioneered work in mind body connection explains this in her book, Molecules of Emotions.
“Emotions are not simply chemicals in the brain. They are electrochemical signals that carry emotional messages throughout the body. These signals, a mixture of peptides, have far reaching effects. As our feelings change, this mixture of peptides travels throughout your body and your brain. And they’re literally changing the chemistry of every cell in your body – and sending out vibrations to other people.”
The good news is that positive thoughts and emotions can affect our bodies in a positive way. While many people cannot see emotional states as something that we can intentionally change, I want to encourage you that we can interrupt our current state of emotion, take control of, and change our emotions and the way we feel. This blog is about recognizing the pattern or elements that create emotions and using that information to better our emotional health. Consider it reverse engineering.
We are connected in several ways. First, we are connected within ourselves to our entire tripartite being. We are a spirit, we possess a soul, and we live in a body. What affects one area of our lives affects the whole. But we are also connected to others by the energy we send out and receive – positive or negative. A single person can change the energetics in an office setting, a church, a team, a family, and so on. If one’s energy can affect other people on days that one fells down, then energy will work for enhancing our environment on the positive days as well. Thankfully, we can learn to change our negative emotions with a few physical and mental adjustments.
There is a practice that therapists and coaches use to help people create an emotional state. There are times when it is helpful for therapists to lead a client to create a negative emotion. This is sometimes referred to as “tuning”, as in Emotional Freedom Technique (Tapping). This helps to gauge the depth of their emotions and feelings regarding issues in life. Every emotion we feel is a pattern that runs through our mind, our body, and our nervous system. Because it is a pattern, we can break down the pattern to help us solve issues and create positive states of emotions. I first learned about creating and breaking state in a class I took with Graham Nicholls Strategic Coaching and Training. While the class was not considered a Christian or Spiritual class, I began to realize that the pattern presented was a very scriptural and biblically based practice. Our emotional state and changing our emotional state are created from three areas of what we do and think.
The first part of creating or changing the pattern is called our Physical Association of emotion. It refers to the "body language" of an emotion. Our bodies tell us how we are feeling emotionally. Unlike many other cultures around the world, the western culture does not teach us the value of stopping to examine what our bodies are telling us. Things like being cognizant of our depth of breath, the beating of our hearts, our posture, and head and neck positioning are a few of the indicators of our mental status.
According to Harvard Health Publishing, from Harvard Medical School, “While it is obvious that your feelings can influence your movement, it is not as obvious that your movement can impact your feelings too. For example, when you feel tired and sad, you may move more slowly. When you feel anxious, you may either rush around or become completely paralyzed. But recent studies show that the connection between your brain and your body is a “two-way street” and that means movement can change your brain, too!”
Moving our bodies and being intentional with movement can change the way we feel. The bible has presented this truth for millenniums. The book of Isaiah (61:3) encourages God’s people that He has given us the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (sadness, despair, depression). God offers us a trade of our sorrows for His gladness. He gives us the garment, but we must put it on. What is praise? It is incorporating physicality into the act of recognizing and honoring God. In the good times it is easy to have an attitude of gratitude. Scripture is clear about how we can deal with those not so good times and come through them refreshed. Habakkuk 3:17-19 Gives an example of how praising God in the bad times can strengthen and help us emotionally.
“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.
Despite circumstances, the response of rejoicing and finding joy in God, and not surrendering to the circumstances resulted in gaining strength and the sense of being above the circumstances – not buried by them.
Scripture has many examples of instructions for doing something with our bodies to praise God. The bible instructs us throughout the book of Psalms to make a joyful noise, to rejoice in God, to sing, to declare, clap our hands, dance, shout, play instruments, raise our hands, bow down, lay prostate, celebrate, and turn our eyes or face upward. We can quietly worship remaining motionless while communicating with God, but it seems that scriptures indicate that we can only praise God while we are doing something pertaining to physical activity. Even talking has a positive or negative affect on us. Our words are a physical posture. Words can snare us or free us. Hearing what we say can trigger a response.
Proverbs 6:2 tells us, “You have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth.”
Changing our physical posture alone helps us to overcome negativity. Exercises like running can release endorphins that trigger a positive feeling in our bodies. Add the intention of praise and the results are even greater. We were created to use our bodies to honor God. Body movements sends a signal to our brain that causes our brain and emotions to change to a positive state. It changes the neuropeptides and their communication to every cell in our bodies. God knew this anecdote a long time ago and it still works for us today.
The second element of this pattern has to do with recognizing and changing our focus or attention. There is a saying, “where focus goes energy flows!” Whatever we think about grows and what we think about most grows biggest. Changing our focus to God, His ability, His goodness, His strength, His grace - changes us. We use our imagination every day, practically all day long, and even in our dreams! We fret, we worry, we stress about what might happen. We picture the worst-case scenario in our minds. God gave us our imagination to use in healthy, faith building ways. Isaiah 26:3 tells us,
“I will keep him in perfect peace, whose imagination is kept on me.”
Imagination is the first step of creation. Ask an artist! Ask a designer! Our imaginations are the launchpad of everything that man has created in the physical world – our imagination is part of what creates feelings and emotions we experience. Several instances in the Old Testament God made it clear that we have a choice regarding how we live our lives. One example is Deuteronomy 30:19.
“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! (NLT)
While we cannot always choose the circumstance we are faced with, God indicates that we choose a mindset of life or death, of blessings or curses. When we choose to think in a positive manner or a negative manner, we are in a sense choosing a result. We are choosing a manifestation.
The artist does not look at the canvas and decide that it is not a masterpiece. She uses her imagination to begin to see the end product instead of the beginning.
Jesus would not have told his followers “Don’t take an anxious thought” if it was not within their power to not take the anxious thought. He would not have said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled, but believe and trust in God” if there was not a choice on our part.
The apostle Paul beautifully writes encouragement in his final words to the church at Philippi,
“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about the things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
We can control our thoughts, which will control the way we feel, which will control our attitudes, and direct our decisions. None of us make good judgments when I am driven by negative feelings. We have the power to take every thought captive and bring it to the obedience of Christ. II Corinthians 10:5 empowers us:
“We pull down every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.” (GNT)
We are not slaves to our thoughts. Our thoughts should serve us. We can catch, challenge, and change the thoughts we have. When we do, we break our emotional state and create another. We have the power to direct our thoughts. Our thoughts will direct our feelings and emotions.
The third element of changing our emotions is called Semantics. Basically, this is the language we use and the questions we ask ourselves. On a deeper level, it is the language we use and the questions we ask ourselves about ourselves. This has to do with meaning. We interpret or judge something that is going on or we interpret someone else’s actions. Then we ask ourselves, “What does this mean about me?” because meaning is typically internalized as being about “me”. In our judgments we attempt to assign a meaning for everything that happens. This judgement comes back to us as one pointed question; what does this (someone’s actions or words, or events going on) mean or say about me? Unfortunately, we often respond to these questions with the wrong answer about ourselves. Many times, we have harmful feelings and emotions because we have inserted meaning about ourselves into an equation that is not accurate or even necessary.
Are the questions we ask ourselves, positive and empowering, or are they negative and belittling? The way we ask those internal questions can induce positive or negative feelings. The wrong questions will always lead us to a wrong answer, and if not challenged will lead to a wrong conclusion. For example, when a negative or harmful event happens, we typically “ask Why”. This is a legitimate question but is hardly ever the most productive question. If we come up with a sincere but wrong answer, then we simply end up being sincerely wrong, and misguided about ourselves and our identity.
Our biggest enemy is not the devil. It is not our past and the bad choices we made. Even the cruel circumstances we face are not one’s biggest enemy. If you know the story about Paul and Silas being in jail, then you know that they were facing difficult circumstances. They had been obedient to their calling and were being punished by the government for doing so. So, a little side lesson here is, we should not think that negative circumstances are the result of our wrong-doing or bad decisions. Sometimes they can bring regretful results to our lives but many times the circumstances we face are not a punishment of our past. In this episode of their lives, they followed this pattern I am describing and guess what happened? Acts 16:25-26 tells us:
“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed.”
Paul and Silas were choosing to praise God during their challenging circumstances. They were choosing where or who their attention and focus was going. They were not asking “why me Lord?” regarding their circumstances. Their incorrect interpretation or judgment would have led them to the wrong conclusion that their current circumstances was the end of the story. They knew the correct interpretation and meaning of their lives and their situation. Chances are there have been people in your life who may have dominated you in one or more ways. Belittling words and actions of the past from parents, siblings, coaches, teachers, employers are never far away. They tuck themselves into the peripheral of our conscious thoughts lingering like bad perfume. They sit in the seat of judgment as we look to them as a source of identity and acceptance. When our internal sense of identity is based and founded in God’s love for us, like Paul’s and Silas’ were, we are less likely to internalize, interpret and accept false meaning to and about ourselves and the events around us. The actions, the focus, and the internal dialog of Paul and Silas, regarding their situation, caused the bands (shackles) to miraculously be loosed. We too can be free from the bonds of the past and present false identity placed upon us.
Our biggest enemy is not an external foe. Our biggest nemesis is the lie(s) we believe about ourselves. Those words that haunt. The memories that live as strong today as they did years ago. The self-doubt that robs us of the courage to step out and attempt to see our dreams come true. Not only can the statements we tell ourselves lead to a downward spiral, but the questions that we internally ask about ourselves have an enormous amount of influence regarding the way we feel. This internal dialog is indicative of our sense of identity. There is an inspiring version of the story of our lives. It does exist and is ready to be lived. The internal dialog regarding harmful chapters of our lives has seeped into the core beliefs of our hearts, creating an opinion that is based on speculation and fear. God’s love can change that. Most of us understand that life can often be a struggle. Negative feelings and emotions can make us feel like we are experiencing the end of the dream, the goal, the vision, the story.
If you are experiencing emotional difficulty, try these three things regarding breaking and creating state. First, do something physically that is different from what you have been doing. Do one or more of the things that scripture indicates is praise. Recognize and honor God with your praise as a statement of faith. Next, change your attention from the problem to the solution. God is a good God, and we can ask Him to step into our circumstances and situations. He is not afraid of our past failures or bad decisions and is not diminished by them. He is willing and eager to get involved in the parts of our lives that we consider too ugly for a holy God. Then, challenge the validity of the story you are telling yourself about yourself. If God thinks good thoughts about us, then we should tell ourselves the same thing. Have you taken the time to check out God’s opinion of you? You are more than you think you are. You were created with purpose, value, and significance. One of my favorite scriptures is found in Jeremiah 29:11.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV)
God has good plans for you. These plans are to give you hope and a future. If God is for you maybe it is time for you to be for yourself as well.
When we put these three parts of this circle of emotion into practice - the physical association of emotion, the mental focus and attention (on God and his goodness), and we change the inner and external dialog to align with God’s word, we will create a new positive emotional state.
