Wellness Calendar: Friday 5 December

The fifth revolution

[Our internal world; thinking, feeling, actions, mind-set; intelligence; un/heathy action cycles]

Is it fair to say that the very essence of how we are, at any moment in time, comes down to the way we think, feel and do things? Considering this, it could be worth taking the time to understand more about these aspects of ourselves so that we can, in turn, use them as tools to greater understanding, greater knowing. Yet while there’s a lot of our internal world to take in and consider, there’s no obvious rush. Let this revolution take the slow train.

Thought: an idea or opinion produced by thinking, or occurring suddenly in the mind.
Thinking: the process of considering or reasoning about something.
Mental states: a state or frame of mind, a mind-set, or a mental process.

Here are some different types of thinking for us to consider: Thinking outside of the box. Analytical thinking. Critical thinking. Concrete thinking. Theoretical thinking. Divergent thinking. Convergent thinking. Linear thinking. Non-linear thinking. Logical reasoning. Visual thinking. Rational thinking. Irrational thinking. Ruminating. Intrusive thoughts. Distorted thinking. Perceptive thinking. Conceptual thinking. Subjective thinking. Objective thinking. Process thinking. Recall thinking. Positive thinking. Negative thinking. Challenging thinking. Thinking about thinking (or metacognition).

Here’s an incomplete list of mind-sets, including brain activity that may last for a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month or year upon year: Knowledge. Attitude. Restlessness. Distress. Restfulness. Sensing. Fantasy. Focus. Perception. Remembering. Organising. Stress/tension. Confidence. Attachment. Detachment. Delusion. Hopefulness. Fearfulness. Anxiety. Love. Depression. Arousal. Satisfaction. Confusion. Desire. Some people make life very hard for themselves by restricting the quality of their everyday experiences due to a negative or flat outlook, or what we might call a bad attitude or a glass-half-empty mode – stuck in a rut of unhelpful thoughts and thinking.

Let us now look at all the different types of intelligence, as perceived by Howard Gardener, and see what we might possess: Human intelligence: an ability to apply knowledge, using memory, experience and judgement. Musical intelligence: an understanding and awareness of different types of sound. Visual intelligence: possessing spatial awareness, creative visual imagination and expression. Verbal intelligence: an ability to express yourself with words. Athletic intelligence: an understanding of your own body’s dexterity, agility and sensations. Logical intelligence: the ability to reason and make deductions, to spot patterns and solve problems. Naturalist intelligence: an affinity/understanding of nature. Intrapersonal intelligence: an understanding of the self. Interpersonal intelligence: the knowledge of relationships. Existential intelligence: the ability to ponder the ‘big questions’ in life. Teaching intelligence: to pass on knowledge/skills to others. Daniel Goleman also put forward another type: Emotional intelligence: an ability to understand and assess one’s own emotions as well as those of others.

Emotion: a stirred-up, bio-chemical state that occurs in response to an event. Emotions can be measured by blood flow, brain activity and facial expressions.
Emotions can either be allowed to run their course or they can be suppressed. Suppressing emotions can cause multiple health problems further down the line.
Feeling: a reaction to an emotional experience. How we respond to what’s happening in our bodies depends on how emotionally aware/intelligent we are and how we interpret our emotional messages.
Facial expressions: positions and movements of muscles beneath the skin that help to reveal what a person is feeling.
Bodily sensations: feelings or sensory experiences that affect parts of the body, such as heat, prickles, pain or butterflies in the stomach.
Mood: whatever combined emotional and mental state we have at any given time, be it for minutes, hours or days. Moods are not caused by any one event or episode, but rather a result of any number of factors, such as our environment, people, our physiology, health and diet, as well as our genetics and temperament.

Below is a random list of feelings: Amused. Interested. Satisfied. Elated. Vengeful. Pitying. Proud. Helpless. Joyful. Tender. Cheerful. Bored. Defeated. Angry. Sympathetic. Powerless. Outraged. Content. Exhilarated. Disliked. Adoring. Dreading. Rejected. Hostile. Hateful. Hurt. Guilty. Numb. Amazed. Distrusting. Hopeful. Disillusioned. Bitter. Regretful. Receptive. Uncomfortable. Suspicious. Isolated. Excited. Elated. Confused. Scornful. Inferior. Revolted. Shocked.

The sensual self: a system for gathering information through detecting stimuli. It includes smell, touch, taste, sight, sound, pain, balance, direction, time, temperature, motion, speed, intuition.
The nervous system: sends information between the body and the brain. This is where we think, learn and store memories.
Hormones: chemicals that move messages around the body, helping to keep us regulated and under control, as well as aiding growth and development among other functions. Examples include serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine, oxytocin, oestrogen.

Doing: engaging in an activity.
Action: doing something to achieve an aim.
Behaviour: the way in which we act or conduct ourselves, especially towards others; the way in which we behave in response to a particular situation or stimulus.
Doing, actions and behaviour are actively entwined with our thoughts, thinking and mental state as well as our emotions, feelings and mood. In turn, these can affect our motivation and energy levels.
Motivation: to have a reason, need or purpose to do something; to be driven to start or complete something.
Energy levels: the will and energy to do things can fluctuate at different times. This can sometimes be a result of diet or different times of the calendar, or it could be due to the delicate balance of our emotional, psychological and active systems.

A healthy action cycle: We start off with a sensation. We become aware of it,
We become aroused by it and feel the need to mobilise ourselves in some way.
We take whatever action we can. We’ve now made full contact (we’ve responded to the sensation). We’ve now experienced the satisfaction of having completed the cycle. All that remains is for us to withdraw from this particular cycle so that we’re ready for the next sensation to come along.

An unhealthy action cycle: We shut off our sensation as a defence. Rather than becoming aware of the sensation, we deflect it away from ourselves. We do not mobilise ourselves. Instead, we go into an automated response, one that we ‘should do’ because it is the ‘right thing to do’ rather than the thing we actually want to do. Rather than take action, we worry about what other people might think of us acting in this way. We sabotage our action out of fear that we’ll get it wrong or that we’ll fail or we go with someone else’s need instead of our own need. We pretend that this merging of needs is okay, as it stops us making full contact and completing the cycle. Satisfaction at completing a cycle can be blocked by feelings of guilt and shame. Finally, what if we’re unable to withdraw from the cycle when we want to, either because we don’t know how or someone else won’t let us?

Save to My SD scrapbook