Today was not a very good day in my life. I received my exam results after taking my Diplomate Exam in Applied Kinesiology. I failed 3 of the 5 exams by 1-2%.
What is interesting is how quickly I went to self-pity and disappointment in myself for not passing, that I had failed and that I wasn’t good enough. Forgetting to remind myself that I did all of this with a new born baby at home.
These emotions today got me thinking about the idea of emotional health on our overall health. The idea of sabotaging our emotional self and how that translates into physical sickness.
Funny enough as the universe would have it I cam across an article on Mark’s Daily Apple discussing just this issue. When the student is ready the teacher appears…..
Hanging onto emotion after the fact, in its lesser forms, can hold us back from experiencing full thriving. In it’s worst manifestations, we let it cannibalize us. When we take responsibility for our health, we also take responsibility for our mental health and the self-talk that fuels (or constrains) our lives. It helps to cultivate a “let it go” approach to life and to let go of negative self-talk that sends us down a useless emotional source
It is just so easy to let go of self responsibility and play the victim role that it is not my fault and why does this always happen to me.
In the second article on the physical benefits of positive emotions.
It is clear to me that our emotional health is all about negative or positive emotions. The article talks about research that was done on positive emotions. Research on positive emotions has huge benefit to our physical being. The research shows:
the physical power of positive emotions in a theory is called “undoing.” Aside from the cognitive advantages, the primary physiological benefit of positive emotions is the “undoing” of negative stress induced responses. Good feelings calm our cardiovascular reactivity and sympathetic nervous systems. Positivity, in other words, returns us to physical homeostasis
This of course to me makes sense because right now I don’t feel very good physically because of my negative emotions and it would make sense that saying in a state of positive emotion would have a total body net benefit to staying healthy.
How much positivity do we experience in a day – and how much negativity do we need to recover from? the research suggests we need at least three positive emotions to one negative in order to “flourish” within our individual lives and relationships.
What Mark concludes in the article is this:
Nonetheless, when we recognize the power of positive emotion on our well being – indeed, the critical role of positivity in our basic health, it’s a downright shame to deny ourselves the full portion of its benefits source
Which is really powerful when you think about it and makes me realize that I actually do feel really good about myself.
I studied hard, made my best effort to learn and know as much as I could. I failed 3 and passed 2 and passed my practical exam, which were all very challenging. I did this all while my wife and I are learning to care for our second child who is now 2 months old.
So, I did great and I am proud of myself. I now have an opportunity to study some more and learn the material that much more which not only benefits me but helps my patients heal and become better people in our communities.
Forgiveness Is a Decision Only You Can Make
