EMOTIONAL, PHYSICAL AND MENTAL BALANCE
For many years it was considered that the state of health was only based on the absence of physical illnesses. But in the middle of the 20th century, the World Health Organization (WHO) has given its definition of what the state of health is in general, and said that it is not only the physical state but also the mental and social state.
WHAT ARE EMOTIONS?
Emotions are chemicals that our body produces. They are molecules, hormones and neuropeptides that when released travel through the bloodstream, reaching the cell and transmitting a message, and this message changes the cell's electrical frequency and chemical composition, also modifying its behavior. And after that you feel a certain way. In this way, emotions are much more than things you feel, they are the main drivers of the biological system and orchestrate the balance of the organism.
HOW TO RELEASE MORE HORMONES TO FEEL GOOD AND LESS HORMONES THAT MAKE ME FEEL BAD?
It's about doing activities that release molecules associated with well-being. The famous oxytocins, serotonin, dopamine, endorphin. For example: sports, massage, music, laughter, a walk... There are many things that can be used to reach the desired state of mental balance. But there is one that stands out: the practice of mindfulness meditation. Because when it comes to emotional balance there is something even more important than releasing “happiness hormones” which is knowing how to navigate unpleasant and complicated emotional states.
The reason is that you cannot always be happy, it is practically impossible. Sooner or later something will happen in your life that will make you feel sadness, pain, bitterness, guilt, resentment. These things will happen in life whether you want it or not, and if you have only dedicated yourself to releasing happiness hormones, but you have not learned to navigate pain and grief, you will not know how to navigate those difficult emotions that are common in life. . With that you can experience an emotional imbalance.
Mindfulness will help you navigate those happy moments and difficult moments in harmony. We call that balance.
Many people think that emotional balance is always being happy and smiling, it is also allowing an open flow of emotions without falling into reactive and chaotic responses without losing your head and composure.
The key to emotional balance is in your mind. Having the right mental attitude when joy appears you let it express itself and be what it is, but there will come a time when joy has to go and you will allow it. If you hold on to it, you will be blocking the dynamic network of neurochemical communication because you do not let it flow.
Mindfulness teaches you to create the right mental state for this to happen harmoniously and when the negative emotion appears you do exactly the same, you allow yourself to feel it as it is. You achieve this by creating the correct mental attitude, so when the uncomfortable emotion emerges you do not reject it, but you do not overflow either, you remain in the resilient attitude in which you are able to overcome your feelings of frustration and tolerate stress and uncertainty.
With everything said, now you can better understand that we will not always live with joy and that there is not only happiness, everything has its time and we have to live according to what we go through and feel in order to achieve mental balance.
Of course it is very good to do things that make you expand and feel good, but you also have to train the ability to be with the pain without repressing it and without allowing it to tear you apart and that is a mental ability that you can learn if you take a few minutes every day to practice mindfulness, which teaches you not to resist the emotions that make you uncomfortable and not to get trapped in the emotions that please you. You allow emotions to flow freely, without rejecting them or reacting hastily. In addition, they release your beneficial molecules, they put them into action because when you meditate you modify the frequency and amplitude of your breathing and they release natural opiates, as well as other pain-regulating substances or natural antidepressants.