Happiness influencers: Emotions (mood)

​Emotions such as joy and inspiration can be the effects happiness. On the other hand, emotions such as gratitude and appreciation can be the causes of happiness.

Emotion is energy in motion and energy is neither created nor destroyed. Learn to channel this power within you by directing the flow of your emotions. 

For some, it may come as a revelation that we can choose the emotions we experience. As suggested above, emotions are expressions of subtle energies flowing within our body.
 
This is one of the bases of mindfulness. We don't need to act out emotions as we can observe them as physical sensations within our body.
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As you can see from the image below emotions are correlated with increase or decrease of sensations in specific parts of our body.

Self-reported body maps showing areas where subjects felt sensations increased (warm colors) or decreased (cool colors) for a given emotion. (Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences).

We can see the radiance of whole-body sensations with great vividness in the head and chest areas that happiness brings. The usual blushing associated with experiencing shame can also be seen as the bright areas around the cheeks. 

The body is like a circuit board in that, every cell responds to every thought we think or every word we say. Thoughts and words carry their own vibrational frequencies. Through amplification, they manifest into one emotion or another. Positive thoughts create light airy feelings while negative thoughts create heavy, dense vibrations.

Verbalising or thinking negative statements such as "I'm so stressed", "It's a pain in the neck", "It's so bad" leave measurable imprints on our being. With repetition, these shape into mental and emotional patterns which shape our experience. 

We must become aware of such tendencies, realise how they harm us, and vow to change them. Here is a simple 3-step process that you can start using today.

1. Awareness. Check in with yourself frequently throughout the day to see what emotional state you are in. How is your breath? Deep or shallow, relaxed or rapid, in your belly or in your chest? How is your body? Comfortable or tense? What is going on within your mind? Is it calm and quiet or agitated?
2. Acceptance. Stop resisting you thoughts or feelings. Often just the act of acknowledging and accepting is enough to release us from the grip of negativity. 
3. Action. Now we can make changes from a place of equanimity. Awareness and acceptance reconnect with our innate wisdom. If you complete the first two steps, you will most likely know what the next one is. The appropriate action to change or heal your emotion will naturally arise.

If in doubt, however, here are some things that can only help:

Move. Get up and go for a brief walk. Moving our body helps get the energy inside it moving. This can help us transform energies that have stagnated into undesirable emotions.

Smile. Our brains don’t know the difference between a real smile and a fake smile. Your brain responds in exactly the same way by releasing ‘happy chemicals’. So, even faking positive emotions has a positive impact.

Re-frame. Find the positive in the situation, person, or event that triggered your negative emotion. The meaning we give to things is one of the most important decisions we make in life. Choose wisely, and you will be the master of your internal world. 

Our emotions are not coincidences. Mastering the flow of our emotions is one of the biggest happiness influencers we have. 

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Related articles:
The value of happiness 
Happiness influencers: Desires
Happiness influencers: Beliefs
Happiness influencers: Identity (roles)
Happiness influencers: Time
Happiness Influencers: Conditioning (patterns)

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Martin S Petkov helps people master their super power - mind, body, and heart in balance and alignment. This naturally brings more happiness, health, and harmony into their lives.

He uses the Japanese system for relaxation and gentle transformation Reiki. It facilitates growth and healing by naturally harmonising and strengthening mind and body on a deep level. Martin also offers courses dedicated to happiness or life purpose.