by Anonymous
Image source: https://youmatter.world/en/perception-worldview-sustainability-climate/
I have a theory about well adjusted people, people with good mental health. I believe that they demonstrate amazing self regulation when it comes to their perception and interpretation. Some emotions are rather physiologically indistinguishable. For example, the butterflies you get in your stomach when you are excited feels almost the same as the shaking nervousness, indicative of anxiety.
Is it risky impulsive behaviour or is it the perfect opportunity for mind bending character development?
Is your life a tear worthy tragedy or a laughable comedy?
Is it excited anticipation or is it a biological alarm sensing imminent danger?
The parallel nature of polar opposites can be chillingly sobering.
The real question is are we in control of how we label these physical sensations? If we feel the buzz of energy and a quickening heart rate, can we decide which emotion we attribute these bodily sensations to? The answer is yes.
When our body feels a physical sensation, it is up to our cognitive capacities such as our judgment and perception to label this sensation. In a split second our brains have to make a decision; is this sensation we are feeling in our body a positive or negative sensation? In laymens terms, is this sensation good or bad? Attempting to squeeze every physical sensation into a concrete binary of good or bad will inevitably lead to false dichotomies. Sensations being prepackaged and tied up nicely to fit into a box. The reason for this is simple, the way our brains understand things is by categorizing them. So when those butterflies start rumbling and bubbling under the surface, your brain is forced to make a decision- is it fear or is it excitement?
Cognitive appraisal theory says that your brain first evaluates the situation to decide if it is threatening. Then, the emotion that follows is based on how threatened the person feels (So & Cho 2016). Everyone’s threat tolerance, or threat threshold, may be different. For some, spiders are very threatening and for others they are not. Viewing a spider as part of the natural ecosystem, as something that you can peacefully coexist with would cause the least amount of fear, anxiety and distress. Opposingly, seeing a spider as something harmful and dangerous would cause a person’s fight or flight response to activate. Therefore, the emotion experienced after seeing a spider will vary from person to person. The emotion depends on the cognitive interpretation of the situation.
So it can be subjective. We may have more control of our emotions and our reactions than we believe. We are the conductors, the drivers, the creators of our own experience.
Shakespeare did it best, every tragedy he wrote has side plots full of laughter, love and pure hilarity. Evaluating your life as a comedy is much less stressful and threatening than perceiving your life as a tragedy. If our reasoning, logical and mental faculties are capable of directing cognitive appraisal, I believe we should air towards the side of positive evaluations, or the evaluations that result in the least stress. There is an absurdist surreal quality to unfortunate incidents and the choice to view it as comical can be beneficial. Comedy is seen as an effective coping strategy that improves mood, affect and resilience in difficult situations.
I’ve been feeling like I am drowning under a growing pile of emotionally exhausting incidents that my brain needs to systematically sort out. In order to sort them out I feel the strange need to feel sad, to evaluate all of them for their profound impact. Part of this may sound healthy, but another way to look at it is purposeful rumination which may not be the answer.
But what I realized is I am the author of this story.
I could look at these heavy dark incidents as roadblocks, reasons not to participate in life. But instead I choose to look at everything I’ve been through as exponentially ever evolving character development. Everything I live through strengthens my trust in the inner resources I’ve cultivated.
I make the choice to not evaluate these tumultuous events as threatening. I changed my mind set and tried to relabel, redefine these events. This process of changing cognitive evaluations is not easy. I still often struggle to differentiate anxiety from excitement despite all the progress I have made. When it comes to changing how your brain is wired, it’s a long process and can not happen overnight.
Next time you feel butterflies – stop for a second, and see if you can reframe how you are perceiving these events. That second of contemplation and effort into conscious perception might be the difference between a stressful interview and an exciting chance at a new job.
Perception is the tool and we are the architects of the inner landscape.
Reference:
- So, J., Kuang, K., & Cho, H. (2016). Reexamining fear appeal models from cognitive appraisal theory and functional emotion theory perspectives. Communication Monographs, 83(1), 120-144. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/10.1080/03637751.2015.1044257
(So & Cho 2016)
