The Emotion Machine

I want to take the time to write about 6 aspects of life that I feel put together a complete picture of a well-balanced person. By focusing on these different dimensions of life we can determine which areas need work and which areas we already have a good handle on. These six aspects include physical, mental, emotional, social, financial and spiritual. If any one of these gets out of whack it can send ripples through our life. That is why it is important to exercise balance and stay conscious when we begin to drift too far one way or another.

If you have already read Part 1 and would like to read Part 2 please click here.

1. PHYSICAL

The physical aspect of life includes our health and the way we treat our bodies. This includes what we consume, how often we exercise, keeping our bodies clean and fresh, as well as our posture and how we carry ourselves. Our body is the most precious gift we have and without it we can’t exist. If we don’t stay healthy we certainly can’t enjoy all the other aspects of life. For that reason, love of our bodies is the very first step on the road of happiness. No matter where we are starting from, no matter how irreversible we think our bad health may be, it is never too late to start changing our habits. A healthy body is a healthy mind, and by taking better care of ourselves we will feel more confident, more motivated, and more controlling of our life situation.

Things to do:

• Find a way to be physically active everyday. This could be anything from joining a gym to just dancing by yourself in your room. Find something that you are comfortable with, make it fun, and seek out new challenges. Don’t forget those sports you used to like to play as a kid, and if you really have to, you could even borrow your girlfriend’s Wii Fit.
• Keep yourself clean. Don’t be lazy and not shower or skip out on shaving. Treat your body as a work of art. Keep it in mint condition and make yourself presentable to the rest of the world. Also, stop wearing the same piece of underwear for two weeks straight. Frankly, its rather disgusting.
• Pay attention to your diet! Seriously, cut back on the fast food already. Aren’t you sick of all those gases bubbling your stomach and intestines all the damn time? Focus on eating more vegetables, less meat, and cutting out all the fried food and saturated fats. You can start by reading my article Better Health In America…
• Quit the bad habits and especially work on cutting back on those cigarettes. I know, I know – you are a badass, you like smoking them, and you are tired of everyone telling you to quit. But don’t do it for us, do it for yourself. You do not want to end up in a crippling state within the later years of your life. This is true for all harmful drugs. At least find a way to better moderate your consumption. It is a start, and you feel much better once you have done so!

Please do not underestimate the importance of keeping your body in shape. It is more than just looking and feeling good about yourself – it is also about living a life of longevity and limiting the suffering from potential illness and disease. You can have everything else in your life figured out, but if you don’t maintain your health there won’t be anyone around to enjoy it all.

2. MENTAL

Just like if you don’t take care of your body then it will deteriorate, the same is true for your mind. Just because you don’t have to go to school anymore doesn’t mean you can’t learn new things. I feel it is especially important to stay up to date on news and politics, but even doing Sudoku puzzles is a great way to keep your cognitive abilities sharp. Keeping your mind active has shown to prevent the onset of Alzheimers, other forms of dementia, and I presume other cognitive abilities we risk losing if we don’t exercise them.

Things to do:

• Puzzles, board games, videogames, and other problem-solving activities are great ways to keep your mind active. The best part is you can usually find something you really enjoy, so you can keep your brain healthy, and at the same time enjoy life a little more.
• New technology has kind of replaced many peoples’ interests, but I still recommend reading books every now and then. I prefer non-fiction material like science and philosophy books; the idea of gaining more knowledge about our vast world has always been appealing to me. But even reading fictitious stories is a great way to keep yourself engaged. The ability to follow a deep, unraveling story for 300+ pages is actually an interesting mental feat in and of itself. Just by reading words you are creating a whole new world inside your head. This helps you to build your imagination, your ability to follow complex relationships between characters, and to evoke reality in a way that may not have been possible within the limitations of your own life.
• You may not be a reader, but there might be something you have always wanted to learn more about – why not go see if there is a documentary on it? Our generation is very big on visual learning, so this may be the most comfortable route to go if you want to expand your understanding on a particular subject.
• There are also a lot of great college lectures you can watch over at Academic Earth for absolutely free. You can check out various subjects on science, math, computer science, law, history, economics, psychology, religious studies and more. That is, if you are not afraid to put yourself back in the role of a student again.

3. EMOTIONAL

It is very easy to forget the importance of managing our emotional world. If we neglect it we may feel unfulfilled and not understanding certain feelings of emptiness. Therefore it is crucial that we allow ourselves to engage our feelings, seek to understand their origins, and allow them to play themselves out. By bottling our feelings inside we are only hurting our psyche and not letting it resolve itself. Try thinking of emotions, not as something unrational, but as a kind of intelligence.

Things to do:

• Consider the health of your relationships with others and especially loved ones. If we have an argument with our parents or girlfriend then there may be guilt or sadness. The best way to move forward is to apologize for our actions. Also, use experiences like this as a reminder to treat others better in the future.
• Exercise forgiveness towards those who have hurt or disappointed you. It takes a lot of wasteful energy to hold grudges against others, and it is never worth the effort. If you still have the option to forgive them in person then do it. If not, then say a little prayer or send your good intentions to them. Practice this with all your enemies, and sincerely hope that they find happiness.
• Try meditating. Sometimes it is nothing but the everyday frustrations of life that take a toll on our emotional being. Take the time to sit there, observe those feelings, let them manifest, and then let them go. This practice can help remind us that we are humans after all, we are emotional creatures, and part of our health is letting ourselves be. Emotions have a tendency to work themselves out once we express them. Have you ever let out a good long cry and then felt infinitely better afterward? Sometimes that is all you need.
• Show compassion to a stranger. When we serve someone out of love we feel much better than when we are only self-serving. A big lesson in life is that we are all interconnected, and we all share a responsibility for how we treat each other. Therefore, our happiness and mental well-being is also dependent on the happiness and well-being we spread to others.

If you would like to read Part 2 please click here.

Related Posts

• Six Aspects Of A Well-Balanced Person (Part 2)
• Why Be Zen? Stress, Anxiety, And Daily Living
• The Uses And Abuses Of Setting Deadlines
• Fifty Ways To Stay Committed
• How To Think Less And Do More: Turning Life Into Flow
• Start The New Decade By Focusing On Relaxation
• Routines vs. Rituals: The Difference Between Dull-Living And Empowerment

Tags: Advice, Balance, Emotions, Exercise, Happiness, Health, Life, Mental Health, Personal Development, Productivity, Self, Stress, Success, Wisdom

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 9:03 am and is filed under Personal Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.