These weeks, I frequently explained the meaning of expressing ourselves. For logical people, expressing oneself is a part of logical recognition. It helps us understand our states and decide how to react rationally. That clears the mind.
That made me consider the mental system of melancholy. Let’s talk about it.
How to clear melancholy
Sometimes, we want to clear our gloomy minds. Although there is a vague sense of dissatisfaction in the heart, we cannot verbalize and recognize it clearly. Such an unclear mind stresses us.
However, we sometimes don’t know how to relieve such melancholy.
That causes negative reactions. We may fear idle moments that force us to face that feeling, keep searching for something exciting, and be unable to relax. Such a lifestyle often exhausts us.
One solution is expressing ourselves. The mental system behind melancholy tells us why. Today, I will explain it. This logic might help you calm your mind permanently.
The physical system of consciousness
Melancholy is a mental state where we cannot identify the cause of physical stress and verbalize it. In other words, recognizing the physical state appropriately will resolve it.
To explain that, let’s look at the physical system behind melancholy.
The body is composed of the following three parts:
- The conscious is the part of ourselves that recognizes the self. Its purpose is to decide things rationally. When a decision is unneeded, such as while relaxing and sleeping, it remains unactivated.
- The subconscious is the part that connects the conscious to the body. When the body requires a decision to solve a physical problem, it activates the conscious. The subconscious receives a stress signal from the body and sends it to the conscious. If there are similar past experiences, it attaches emotions as a reference for judgment.
- The body is the whole, physical part of who we are. Even if the conscious is unactivated, the body continues to stay active. If the body has a problem, it tries to solve it on its own as much as possible. Examples are regulating body temperature, digesting and absorbing food, and treating injuries. However, when the body encounters a problem that it cannot handle, it generates stress to activate consciousness and prompt a decision.
The logic of melancholy
Those functions tell us the state of melancholy. It is a stress without emotions.
When the body has a problem, we—the conscious—receive stress information from the subconscious. All physical stress needs to be processed appropriately. Otherwise, the body can get sick.
Although problems that we have experienced come with emotions, unfamiliar physical stress often doesn’t involve them. We can only perceive it as, ‘My body feels stressed.’ This physical stress without a particular emotion is melancholy.
In other words, we have to identify what is wrong with the body in that state. However, we often cannot judge unknown physical stress. There can be many factors, such as hormonal imbalances and poor health without fever. Even changes in temperature can cause physical troubles.
That is why teenagers tend to be melancholic, and seasonal changes make sensitive people gloomy. Although they may seem like meaningless phenomena, they have reasons.
Ignoring them hinders our relaxation. If the body has some kind of persistent problem, such as fatigue, poor nutrition, or hormonal imbalance, the body continues to activate the conscious through sending a physical stress.
If emotions are involved, sometimes painful memories from the past are attached to the stress. That causes flashbacks and other mental disorders.
Expressing ourselves
That overview shows us how to clear melancholy. One effective way is to express ourselves.
There are various forms of expression. Examples of verbal expression are making stories and poems, writing a diary, and singing a song. Non-verbal examples are painting, dancing, and playing instruments.
Any expressions help us verbalize and recognize our state.
There are various causes of stress. Even the desire to exercise and the unfamiliar feeling of joy can be perceived as stress.
For example, try to describe your mental state by dancing. You may sometimes feel that your body moves with light steps. That may indicate you feel stress from wanting to be more active. You may sometimes feel like moving your body sharply and powerfully. That may signal you are angry about something and want it to change.
The same goes for other forms of expression. We can even write poems, which allows expressions that dance cannot.
Those expressions allow you to understand your state appropriately and decide what to do based on your rationality. That decision clears your mind. Expression dispels melancholy.
By the way, such melancholy is usually an unfamiliar one for us—temporary aspects inside us—and can often be caused by hormone imbalance. Even embarrassing things, we end up expressing them passionately. That may be why we often cannot share poetic works created when feeling melancholy.
Conclusion
That is why expressing ourselves can clear our gloomy minds.
Melancholy is a mental state where we cannot identify the cause of physical stress and verbalize it.
In other words, recognizing the physical state appropriately will resolve it.
This logic might help you calm your mind permanently.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
