Your emotions and you: Who is in charge?

Bill came to me as a client because he was dealing ineffectively with anger management issues. He let little things get to him on a daily basis and this stress had built up until it was affecting him physically. He had poor digestion, memory problems and depression. Anger is often ignored, avoided or suppressed causing emotion/related health issues. Until anger is recognized, it cannot be expressed correctly. Depression is generally recognized as repressed anger. A sense of being out of control of one’s environment can cause a deep level of buried anger. Many times when this is acknowledged and steps are taken to gain better communication and compromise, the anger subsides, as well as the depression. Studies have shown that physical exercise results in a less depressed state of mind.

I explained to Bill that emotional well-being is the ability to feel and express the entire range of human emotions, and to control them, not be controlled by them. Emotions have begun to be a focus of research relating hormonal output from stress  to the breakdown of physical and mental functions. Balanced holistic health can only be accomplished by monitoring one’s emotions and redirecting them. Many health problems are thought to be directly tied to our inability to constructively vent feelings. This builds up the level of the stress hormone cortisol which has clinically proven to trigger hormonal imbalances and plaque “tangles” of bad protein in brain cells known as Tau. These are forerunners to, not only memory lose, but are associated with Alzheimer.

With so much stress and lack of control of our emotions in today’s culture, it is not surprising that more individuals from ages 30 to 50 years old are having problems with memory and depression.

I worked with Bill to learn ways to take personal responsibility for his reactions. He used a technique from Silva Mind Control.  He did three things in the procedure. He did a relaxation exercise to inhale deeply to the count of seven, and exhale to the count of seven to clear his mind.

After a few minutes, Bill practiced how he was going to deal with an upcoming situation or a stressful situation that he had to face daily. He imagined the details of remaining calm and cool throughout as he practiced how he would “act,’ rather than react in the old inappropriate manner.

Then Bill imaged himself in a timeframe after the event had happened and visualized he was telling his friends how smoothly his day had gone and how he was able to conduct himself in a relaxed manner just as he had in his practice session. In other words, he enacted a scene looking back on a situation as if he had handled it with composure. He felt the emotions that would be present after having accomplished this new outcome in presence of the old triggers.

Bill started using this technique and reported that the more he tried it, the better he got at doing it. He combined this technique with increased exercise; he started walking briskly three times a week and joined a gym with a pool. It became a challenge to Bill for him to remain in control, rather than letting his feelings run his life in response to outer circumstances. His digestion improved and the depression almost all lifted. As Bill used mental imagery and a more active lifestyle to change the bio-chemical output of his hormones, his memory and mental clarity improved and his temper no longer dominated relationships at home and at work.

Patrice Joy Masterson, MA is a Healthy Living Consultant. She offers personalized and group integrative programs at the Harmonizing Health Retreat in Bedford, KY. For more information call 937-631-5581 or go online to www.harmonizing-health.info.