Judging things rationally changed my life entirely. I am no longer afraid of anxiety.
Rationality told me many ways to manage our minds. One example is predicting our mental upset. That eliminated most of my anxiety. Let’s talk about it.
How to reduce mental upsets
Sometimes, we want to reduce our mental upsets, such as anxiety, fear, regret, anger, loneliness, and sadness.
Typical examples are anxiety and flashbacks. The former is the mental disturbance for the future, and the latter is the one for the past.
For example, in a flashback, some triggers make us recall the past, recreate the emotions of that time, and suffer mentally. We cannot anticipate their occurrence. They often appear unexpectedly, especially when we relax.
Anxiety is the same. It often comes suddenly.
That makes us want to always concentrate on something. In other words, we fear empty time. We can never relax.
That is why we want to prepare them in advance.
I recently noticed the patterns in which they occur. Focusing on stress allows us to predict when our mental upsets happen. Today, I will explain the logic.
Three elements of dealing with stress
Focusing on physical stress allows us to predict when our mental upsets occur. That makes it easier to deal with emotional disturbances by preparing for them in advance.
To explain it, let’s look at how our bodies cope with stress. We have the following three elements:
- Physical stress triggers emotions.
- Emotions notify consciousness of the stress’s appearance. It includes memories similar to the past.
- Consciousness removes the stress when it decides to relax. The judgment is recorded as a new reaction in emotions.
If we consciously and rationally make judgments repeatedly to calm ourselves, we will no longer fear our emotions. That is the basic logic of solving our mental problems.
My patterns of emotional upset
The mechanism of these three elements also tells us how to predict our mental upsets. Focusing on physical stress makes it possible.
I recently noticed the patterns of when my emotional disturbances happen. In my case, they appear at the following timings:
- Right after meals
- About 2 to 5 minutes after going outside
- About 40 minutes after starting the walk
They all occurred when my body was under stress. After eating, it puts a burden on digestion. The temperature change strains my body when I go out. Walking is my hobby, but after 40 minutes, my body is getting tired.
Knowing them eliminated most of my worries without problems. The physical stress caused my anxieties. I don’t have to care about their content.
For example, I often had anxieties about money. However, I realized a lack of money was not the cause; the physical stress was. After I consciously relaxed my body, the anxiety disappeared.
In other words, we are misunderstanding the cause. The sources of worry are not the true cause; the physical stress is. In the case of the risk we have to consider, the stress doesn’t disappear in this way, so there is no problem.
Resolving desires for distraction
This realization also resolved my unnecessary desires.
In my case, I have lost the desire for various distractions, such as traveling around the world, drinking alcohol, having a new hobby, something I can be passionate about, success, a life in the countryside, and independence.
My stress caused these desires. That is why those wishes disappeared after I became able to relax.
In other words, I no longer fear empty time. I can wait when there is nothing to do. Even when not concentrated on something, I don’t have negative emotions. Even if it appears, I can resolve it immediately, consciously.
I have started to decide whether to do something based on my physical condition. If my body wants to be active, I will do things like chores, gathering edible wild plants, cycling, and walking. On the other hand, if my body is tired, I do nothing or read stories quietly.
I often judge based on my mood, but the body’s condition affects the mood; my emotions don’t.
Perhaps this is the healthy, neutral mental state. I solved all my useless anxieties in this way.
Conclusion
That is why focusing on stress, including physical stress, allows us to predict when our mental upsets occur.
We can deal with emotional disturbances easily by preparing for them in advance.
This experience might help you reduce your mental upsets.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
