What creates your misery?

Junk!

What kind of junk?

• Junk thoughts
• Junk Food
• Junk drugs
   

Junk Thoughts

Junk thoughts are any thoughts that create anxiety, depression, guilt, shame, anger, blame, resentment,  aloneness, emptiness, jealousy, envy - any thoughts that create misery.

We all have junk thoughts at times, but many people never connect their junk thoughts with their misery. They think that their misery is coming from other people, or from events or circumstances. Yet research on happiness and unhappiness shows that only about 10% of unhappiness comes from outside circumstances, while fully 50% of happiness or misery comes from your own thoughts and actions. The other 40% is genetic - i.e. some people are born with sunny dispositions while others are more serious or morose. However, the research also shows that even those who are born more serious or morose, have the choice to be happy by developing the habit of thinking thoughts and taking actions that bring them joy.

What kinds of thoughts do you have most of the time? What kinds of thought do you have as soon as you wake up on the morning? Do you think, "Oh no, another day to face. I'm too tired to do this day," or do you think, "Thank you for this great day! I'm alive and vibrant and ready to passionately embrace this day!" The first thought is a junk thought, guaranteed to being you misery, while the second is energizing and likely to create feelings of happiness.
 

Junk Food

Are you tuned in to how food affects your feelings? Do you know how sugar, too much coffee, processed devitalized pesticide-and-chemical-laden foods affect your mood? Do you know which foods allow you a good night sleep and which ones keep you up at night? Do you know which foods give you tons of energy and which ones rob you of energy?

Just as you need to start to get conscious of how your thoughts affect your feelings, you also need to attend to how food affects your feelings if you want to feel joy and passion for life most of the time.

While some people are more sensitive to foods than others, everyone is affected by junk food. And even healthy foods can have a bad effect if they are not right for your body. I'm very sensitive to carbs, even healthy vegetable carbs. I love my green smoothies filled with raw veggies and some fruit, but if I drink them after lunch, they keep me up at night.  So each of us needs to be aware of how what we put into our bodies affects us if we want to move out of misery and into joy.
 

Junk Drugs

One of the things that can occur with many drugs, both recreational and prescription, is what is called a rebound effect. A rebound effect is when the drugs ends up causing the very symptom it is geared to suppress. For example, I can't take any antihistamines because, while they work for the moment, they end up causing me to be highly allergic. It is well known that many antidepressants can cause suicidal feelings, making the person even more depressed than they were before taking the drugs. For some people, drugs for relaxation can case the very stress they are meant to heal.

It is vitally important to be conscious of the effect of anything that you put into your body. Trying to put a lid on feelings rather than addressing the junk thoughts and actions that might be causing them can keep you stuck in misery.

Feeling alive and happy is a choice that we all have the power to make.

Join Dr. Margaret Paul for her 30-Day at-home Course: "Love Yourself: An Inner Bonding Experience to Heal Anxiety, Depression, Shame, Addictions and Relationships."

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