Excerpt from Enlightened Weight Loss
Emotions are caused by chemicals in your body called hormones and neurotransmitters. Some make you feel good, and some make you feel bad. Different factors can affect these chemicals, like diet, exercise, puberty, menopause, genetics, gut health, and environment. One of the biggest influences on these chemicals is your thoughts.
Negative thoughts trigger hormones like cortisol that make you upset, anxious, unhappy, and uncomfortable. Positive thoughts reduce those stress hormones, and instead, they trigger hormones like serotonin that make you feel good. You can even experiment to see how that works. Repeat something negative to yourself and see how it makes you feel. Then do the same thing with something positive.
Being the master of your emotions begins with the understanding that it is your thoughts that are causing the emotions. Many ignore the control they have over their mood, or they are unaware that they have control. It seems like circumstances or people are the cause of stress, however, they are not at the root of the problem. Your thoughts regarding the person or the situation are causing an emotional reaction.
Of course, you could say that if it weren’t for that person or that situation, you wouldn’t be thinking something negative. Depending on the situation, it might feel impossible to avoid feeling or thinking negatively. However, you do have a choice in the matter. You do not have to continue thinking negatively. The only person that it’s hurting is yourself.
