Your Unhappiness Is Affecting More Than Just Your Emotions
“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” - Dalai Lama
What is unhappiness? You can think of it as a negative emotion that does not provide happiness, or a signal telling you there is something that you could improve in your life If you are unhappy, you are prone to drive people away from you and people are more likely to avoid you. So much of this emotion can be determined by your habits; Unhappiness that lead to a less enjoyable life, an absent peace of mind, lack of social interactions, lower energy and increase risks in health-related conditions. Did you know our emotions affect the people around us and depending on their sensitivity, they could potentially ‘catch’ how we feel?
There is a growing body of evidence that emotions affect physical aspects of health; Dr Mercola says the classic definition of stress is ‘any real or imagined threat and your body’s response to it.’
Your body’s natural stress response can have a significant impact on your immune function, brain chemistry, blood sugar levels, hormonal balance, and more.
Negative emotions impact the immune system and cause regular infections, like colds and flu, and progressing to chronic diseases. So if you are in a bad mood, feeling sad, angry, or stressed, you are more likely to get sick. Hormone circulating throughout the body can shape emotions and thoughts; testosterone can make you more competitive and self-focused, whereas adrenaline can make you either anxious or energised.
The more you understand unhappiness in your way, the easier it is for your mind to help you stop doing things that make you unhappy. Also, realising being unhappy has no value in your life can allow you to “let go” of unhappy thoughts, and do something that will not only improve your situation but also make you feel better. Some of the contributors to unhappiness include our wants and desires, regardless of these can be fulfilled or not. Learning gratitude for what you have can help you be happy with both yourself. Studies show those who are thankful for what they have are better at coping with stress, have more positive emotions, less anxiety, sleep better and are at a lower risk of developing cardiovascular conditions.
Forty percent of your happiness is controlled by your thoughts, behaviours, and how you process things, while only 10 percent is a reflection of circumstances, for example, the mood and emotions of those around you.
When you feel happiness, joy and excitement, your body responds to these positive emotions and releases endorphins and oxytocin (feel-good hormones). Unlike negative emotions that may be trapped in the body, positive emotions aid in removing unpleasant emotions in the body; they do this by triggering cellular changes that improve the normal functioning of the body. Empirical studies have shown that ‘contentment’ and ‘joy’ can speed recovery from cardiovascular aftereffects of negative emotions.
Practising positivity requires an open mind and patience; it is firstly important to identify negative emotions in your body. When you feel the negative emotions, notice where the changes are occurring. For example, feeling sad could affect your muscles or internal organs, like your gut. Once you find the changes, you can figure out the emotion and cope with your internal processing of the emotions and relax the muscles to notice the change, and how it makes you feel. Below are a few things you can try to increase positivity in your life:
Mindfulness & meditation - an effective way to improve your mental and emotional outlook, as it allows you to actively pay attention to the situation you’re in that exact moment.
Practicing gratefulness can cause almost an immediate shift in your perspective
Positive Posture - the mind and the body have an intrinsic connection. Try standing up straight, shoulders back, chin held high, stretching your arms out as wide as they can go. Feel powerful and positive. Carrying yourself with “positive posture” will encourage your mind to feel more positive as well.
Smile - “trick” your mind into being more positive is through smiling. The simple act of smiling, even if you don’t necessarily have anything to smile about, can instantly change the way you feel internally.