If you start off your day brushing your teeth you’re surely engaging in an automatic behavior if you’ve been doing so for quite awhile now. Regardless of your age I hope this is true for you in one way shape or form. I’ll go ahead and assume you’re a brushing fanatic. Brushing your teeth isn’t something you’ve got to really got to focus on every day when it is happening. We’ve brushed our teeth for so long that the process is quite automatic in itself because we’ve habituated ourselves to brushing over the years. Odds are you brush in a fairly similar fashion each time, give it a look over for yourself.
Humans are a creature of habit. If you’ve read my blog prior to this post you’re well aware of the power of habit in our lives. It plays a role in just about everything we do from brushing our teeth to the way by which we put on our pants but have you ever thought about how habit is impacting the way in which you see the very world you live in through the way you think? Our thought is hugely impacted by years of conditioning. If we have habituated ourselves to project negative thinking unto the world we are likely vulnerable to bouts of anger, depression, envy, jealousy, and a wide range of other not so pleasant states of mind.
The brain as a structure, as understood by science, is built in such a way to plainly show us the connection between the way we think and the way we feel. Its outer layers are known as the cortex, within the cortex there lies an intellectual center. Just under our cortex we have an extremely dense network of nerves that connect to a portion of our brain found deeper within known to be an emotional center. This is a simplistic overview of the structure but it outlines the way in which our thoughts are directly connected to the way we feel. We might even experiment to see if such a connection exists at some point during the day by imagining people we love or dislike, possibly situations we dislike or feel discomfort toward. Upon thinking of these situations we may find that emotions begin to arise.
Our thoughts are also closely connected to our bodies, this is well understood in academia. The way in which we think impacts the very way we tend to hold ourselves. If we are feeling anxious or angry we may find our shoulders, chest, or other parts of our bodies to be tightened with tension. This connection also translates to the manifestation of many health issues over time. We understand from a health and wellness perspective that unhealthy habits of thinking and reacting to life’s experiences can create many ailments, ulcers and high blood pressure being just a small excerpt off the list.
Our thought is going to be with us for our entire lives. If we take care of our thinking we will be able to see the world in a way that supports a more stress free style of living in both body and mind. Through caring tenderly for the field that exists within our mind, we will find that over time we begin to reap the rewards fit for a king. You cannot put a price on such rewards and their haul couldn’t be matched by weight in gold.
I wish for you success, health, and well being. Take care friend!
Jordan Hutchison 