Smile right now! Regardless of what is going on in your life I want you to smile. Smile big. Smile goofy. Smile a smile that spreads from your lips to your entire face and eyes, even your neck, shoulders, and scalp. Just smile!
Let me talk to you about choices for a moment. Each moment we have a choice about how we feel. Most often, we are caught up in the events of the moment, and forget we have that choice. Whenever we remember, however, we can shift gears with a simple physical action: a smile.
Our emotional state at any given moment is a result of our brain’s chemistry. If you’ll forgive the term, a “heady” combination of hormones and neural chemicals result in the particular ‘flavor’ of our brain soup. Our brain spices are different when angry than when sad, or ecstatic. Based on this idea that each emotion creates, or results (causation is not an issue in this article) in a particular chemical balance in our brains, it is pretty obvious that we can not entertain two opposing emotions at the same time. Just as your stove top chowder can’t be ‘too salty’ and ‘not salty enough’ at the same time, so your brain can’t be chemically spiced as ‘sad’ and ‘happy’ at the same time.
So…in those moments of lucidity when you become aware of who controls your brain’s spice cabinet, here is what I suggest