May 5 - Emotional Realities

I just got on the bus after a few weeks of being ecstatically terrified! I keep flipping back and forth between fear coupled with anxiety and curiosity charged with excitement!

A professor encouraged me to focus on the functional analysis of behavior. To extrapolate, the FAB paradigm assumes that behaviors are functional and teleological. In other words, behaviors and emotions are useful, have a purpose, and are designed to accomplish a goal. For example, fear serves to protect me from physical harm while anxiety serves to protect me from social harm.

Additionally, I learned about a Janus-faced situation where you have conflicting emotions. For instance, having imperative (avoid) and indicative (curiosity) emotions -- both of which are arousal based.

With all of that in mind, I was then encouraged us to focus on the curiosity thus attributing the arousal to the positive side of the Janus faced situation.

This allows me to label my increased heart rate, racing thoughts, and shaky hands as exciting curiosity rather than fearful anxiety...

On top of all of that, I've come across the idea of Mental Alchemy. Alchemy being the idea of transmuting lead into gold. Lead being a common and potentially harmful metal, gold being a rare and precious metal. In my own words, perspective is everything... If you can control your perception of "threats" you can control your response. Edwin Harkness Spina explains on his webpage;

"Mental alchemy is the process of transmuting your thoughts to improve your life and expand your mind... Mental alchemy involves the replacement of beliefs that are hindering your development with positive ones that will help you." These ideas are the core of my efforts to overcome my addictions. This couples nicely with our pretrip lessons!

To explain, imagine getting to class and receiving a syllabus with an entire page of assignment due dates which I "need" to finish those "frustrating" assignments by. All while juggling other classes due dates and life's unforeseen obstacles and complications! How stressful, right?

Alternatively, what if I read that syllabus as recommendations and suggestions. Here's an entire page of content that my professor has filtered through so I can get content of, strictly, high quality; how generous! These suggested dates are justified because my professor wants me to succeed and prosper! She's taken the time to break down the entire class into a suggested timeline that is designed to help me do well in her course! All I have to do is follow her recommendations! That sounds like an exciting class... I'm all in!

Essentially, when I'm feeling anxious, my narrative of the situation is crucial in determining my response. Here's an example from Wikipedia;

"A typical example of the stress response is a grazing zebra. If the zebra sees a lion closing in for the kill, the stress response is activated as a means to escape its predator. The escape requires intense muscular effort, supported by all of the body’s systems. The sympathetic nervous system's activation rarely provides for these needs."

But!! Again from Wikipedia;

"A threat from another animal does not always result in immediate fight or flight. There may be a period of heightened awareness, during which each animal interprets behavioral signals from the other. Signs such as paling, piloerection, immobility, sounds, and body language communicate the status and intentions of each animal. There may be a sort of negotiation, after which fight or flight may ensue, but which might also result in playing, mating, or nothing at all. An example of this is kittens playing: each kitten shows the signs of sympathetic arousal, but they never inflict real damage."

The past summer I had the opportunity (rather than burden) of taking both Health Psychology and Stress & Pain with a passionate professor. She helped me more then I am capable of communicating to you...

One of the articles that had stuck with me and I think of it at least a few times a week typically. It has a pompous sounding title but bear with me, you can understand it!

The article was titled: Psychoneuroendocrineimmunology. It's a mouthful so we just called it PNEI. If you want to pronounce it a helpful way to think is via that acronym: Psycho-Neuro-Endocrine-Immun-ology.

The idea of the article was that, physiological speaking, my body reacts the same way whether there is an actual threat or I merely perceive something as threatening. A zebra grazing never worries/stresses about tomorrow, yesterday, nor the lion that they cannot see... But I do... In my words, perspective is everything!

I think this is what was the core of my process addictions (like social media, video games, or Netflix). The inverse of these exact ideas allowed me to corner myself in a very bad place, mentally. I allowed fear, anxiety, and pain to control my behaviors and the only way out was escaping via alcohol, alternate realities, and ignorance of my situation. It is not an easy or comfortable task, especially in the beginning. Regardless, it is possible and we can do it.

There's at least three ways to interpret your perceptions and I believe we are capable of narrating our lives in ways that encourage different responses. I think we can control and adjust our paradigms to increase the likelihood of positive responses to stressful stimuli.

In sum, I'm pumped!!!

References:

(In no particular order)

•https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight-or-flight_response

•https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Why-Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Third/dp/0805073698&ved=2ahUKEwjM7ZeSne_aAhULxVQKHaExDXQQFjACegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw0QpI0ZHLxx-bm3bUzF6Ge3

•https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoneuroimmunology

•https://trans4mind.com/counterpoint/index-success-abundance/spina3.shtml