Avoiding an Emotional Roller Coaster

[Thedoctor]

There are a ton of ways to naturally and effectively increase your moods. This is important if you want to be the type of person that gives value and energy, rather than takes it. And, as we know, people who maintain a positive mindset tend to thrive in any avenue they pursue. Here are few good ways to keep a balanced and positive mood:

Eat healthier foods: A lot of processed foods have been linked to depression (not to mention, many other health problems). Aim to eat 5 or 6 small healthy meals throughout the day. Carbohydrates directly affect serotonin levels in the brain (which is what helps regulate your moods), so make sure you get a good serving of carbs in as well.

Sleep: This one should be obvious. Even if you’re just cutting out one hour of sleep, it can affect you quite a bit.

Don’t watch the news: For the most part, the news features stories that drain you of your energy. Local murders, car crashes, wars, global warming, etc. None of this stuff is going to make you feel good about yourself, and a lot of it is just the same info repeated over and over again. If you need to stay up to date, you can quickly read headlines on a number of websites. In truth, I never watch / read news, but I always seem to catch wind of important events. If it's important, you're bound to hear about it from somewhere

Don’t listen to depressing music or watch depressing movies: Long ago, I stopped listening to any music where the singer is just whining (which is actually quite a bit of music). I’ve also mostly stopped watching movies that I know will be dramatic or depressing. Unless I’ve heard rave reviews about them, I’ll stick to movies that leave me feeling good after watching them.

Cut out psychic Vampires: I know there are a couple articles on the main site about this, so no need to go into it. Sometimes, it is just necessary to cut some dead weight from your life. Easier said than done, but you cannot keep people in your life who continuously bring you down.
Here's one of the articles: https://www.girlschase.com/content/prote ... ing-either

Sunlight: Try to get some in. Research has shown it increases serotonin levels, reduces stress and promotes sleep, among other things.

Caffeine: In small doses caffeine actually can be quite helpful, but after your second cup of coffee, it can start to affect you adversely. This, of course, varies from person to person, but if you’re trying to get your moods up, try cutting back on the caffeine.

Laughter: Laughing increases your endorphin levels and has quite a positive impact on the way you feel.

Exercise: Whatever you choose to do, any type of exercise releases natural painkillers and endorphins into your system, on top of countless other health benefits.

A lot of these things seem pretty obvious, but it amazes me the amount of people I’ve met over the years who claim they cannot overcome depression and they look at me funny when I ask them about their eating and sleeping habits.

Feel free to add your own methods for keeping a positive energy.

-John

 

[Franco]

John,

I like these two:

Don’t watch the news: For the most part, the news features stories that drain you of your energy. Local murders, car crashes, wars, global warming, etc. None of this stuff is going to make you feel good about yourself, and a lot of it is just the same info repeated over and over again. If you need to stay up to date, you can quickly read headlines on a number of websites. In truth, I never watch / read news, but I always seem to catch wind of important events. If it's important, you're bound to hear about it from somewhere

Don’t listen to depressing music or watch depressing movies: Long ago, I stopped listening to any music where the singer is just whining (which is actually quite a bit of music). I’ve also mostly stopped watching movies that I know will be dramatic or depressing. Unless I’ve heard rave reviews about them, I’ll stick to movies that leave me feeling good after watching them.

I cut out news and sappy/depressing music from my life a long time ago. I mostly listen to electronic music these days, which is generally about "energy" and "good vibes." Most of the music does not even have vocals, so there isn't any complaining to listen to!

Good tips. Thanks for the post. =)

- Franco

 

[Mr.Rob]

I would add meditation to this.

I'm not the spiritual guru type but studies show people that meditate for 20 minutes a day cut their cortisol levels down in half, if not more.

Plus being grounded in the present moment helps you pull off super gangster shit infield and then you look back after and think "damn I can't believe I just did/said that"

-Rob

 

[Rage]

This is a great thread! I had a few that I felt I could add to the list

Mindfulness meditation: Rob is correct; meditation is powerful and very effective for calming yourself and your mood (and helps with being smooth/calibrated with girls and in general). It’s a good way to shut off all your thoughts (which may be running wild and driving you nuts at times).

The process for this basic form of meditation is simple; what you do is go somewhere quiet, close your eyes and then just focus on listening to yourself breathe. Just focus on the sound of inhale exhale inhale exhale. And try to do this for a minute.

What you’ll come to find is that you can’t do it right off the back; you’ll have all kinds of thoughts just hit you while you’re trying to not think anything (thoughts coming from nowhere it’ll seem). What you should do when this happens is just recollect yourself and then try to bring yourself back and focus on your breath again (and do this each time that it happens that you’re focusing and get distracted). You’ll get gradually better and once you do it will be tremendously beneficial (and you will be able to use it any time you want to clear your thoughts or calm yourself).

Having a quiet alone-time place: Having a quiet place (a place of solitude/isolation where you can go and just relax and recharge) is super beneficial. It’s great for stimulating your creativity and for helping you grasp sudden realizations that your subconscious mind had been working on. Any quiet, isolated place where you can just go and sit (or lie down) and relax works.

Making creative work: Getting to work on any art, writing, music (something that you can make and potentially go on to share with others, if you choose to do so) etc. When you’re so busy creating something/working on an important project, you lose the ability to worry or think about other things because you get so focused on your work; it has quite a cathartic effect. Starving artists and musicians quite often get lost in their creative works because particularly when you start getting really good, a sea of opportunity opens itself to you and your work becomes mesmerizing and addicting more than ever before. Which if you choose to get super into it all you can; but any creative work you can do can help get your mind off of all the tangible issues and oddities of the world.

Delay Gratification: not sure if this is one that belongs primarily on this list but thought I could throw it in. Controlling impulses and delaying gratification is powerful: it builds your willpower and makes you more disciplined. Anyone who has accomplished particularly significant feats in life has had to do this repeatedly and had to have gotten really good/strong at it.

Being in nature/around nature: I forget the exact science behind this or why this works, but it does work quite well (healthy being around plants or something like that). Artists and thinkers often go to be in nature and gather inspiration from it. It’s bugging me that I can’t remember the science behind this; but it’s helpful and very relaxing (and also effective for stimulating your creativity).

Take time to indulge in simple pleasures: Indulge in simple pleasures, whatever they may happen to be for you (can differ greatly from person to person). It might be a bowl of ice cream, laying in some warm dried clothes, having a glass of wine and watching the sun set, playing some video games etc. (one of mine happens to be going to In-n-out burger in CA and getting a 4x4 burger and animal fries and then driving off somewhere isolated and passionately eating it haha). This can be done infrequently/occasionally (if something you don’t wish to make habitual) and in doing it not too frequently it can become a pleasure of yours that you don’t feel guilt when you do indulge in.

Discover and imbue the qualities of self-actualizers: Maslow has been covered a few times by Chase; Maslow’s self-actualizers are the true happy people of the world (and anyone can be self-actualizing from a poor old man to a rich billionaire businesswoman).

Taken from Wikipedia:

A self-actualizer is a person who is living creatively and fully using his or her potentials. What a man can do, he must do. It refers to the desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. While the theory is generally portrayed as a fairly rigid hierarchy, Maslow noted that the order in which these needs are fulfilled does not always follow this standard progression. For example, he notes that for some individuals, the need for self-esteem is more important than the need for love. For others, the need for creative fulfillment may supersede even the most basic needs. In his studies, Maslow found that self-actualizers share similarities. Whether famous or unknown, educated or not, rich or poor, self-actualizers tend to fit the following profile.

Maslow's self-actualizing characteristics

• Efficient perceptions of reality. Self-actualizers are able to judge situations correctly and honestly. They are very sensitive to the fake and dishonest, and are free to see reality 'as it is'.
• Comfortable acceptance of self, others, nature. Self-actualizers accept their own human nature with all its flaws. The shortcomings of others and the contradictions of the human condition are accepted with humor and tolerance.
• Reliant on own experiences and judgement. Independent, not reliant on culture and environment to form opinions and views.
• Spontaneous and natural. True to oneself, rather than being how others want.
• Task centering. Most of Maslow's subjects had a mission to fulfill in life or some task or problem ‘beyond’ themselves (instead of outside of themselves) to pursue. Humanitarians such as Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa are considered to have possessed this quality.
• Autonomy. Self-actualizers are free from reliance on external authorities or other people. They tend to be resourceful and independent.
• Continued freshness of appreciation. The self-actualizer seems to constantly renew appreciation of life's basic goods. A sunset or a flower will be experienced as intensely time after time as it was at first. There is an "innocence of vision", like that of an artist or child.
• Profound interpersonal relationships. The interpersonal relationships of self-actualizers are marked by deep loving bonds.
• Comfort with solitude. Despite their satisfying relationships with others, self-actualizing persons value solitude and are comfortable being alone.
• Non-hostile sense of humor. This refers to the ability to laugh at oneself.
• Peak experiences. All of Maslow's subjects reported the frequent occurrence of peak experiences (temporary moments of self-actualization). These occasions were marked by feelings of ecstasy, harmony, and deep meaning. Self-actualizers reported feeling at one with the universe, stronger and calmer than ever before, filled with light, beautiful and good, and so forth.
• Socially compassionate. Possessing humanity.
• Few friends. Few close intimate friends rather than many surface relationships

In summary, self-actualizers feel finally themselves, safe, not anxious, accepted, loved, loving, and alive, certainly living a fulfilling life.

 

[Howell]

Another obvious one we could add would be to cut out pornography/masturbation from your life. At first it will make things crazier, but then it levels out and you are more in control of your body and have a stronger will. There are some communities online that see doing this as one of the most important step to detoxifying yourself of artificial dopamine super-stimulants, and Chase talks about how it focuses one on short term, immediate gains, and does some serious damage to one's ability to concentrate. You just don't realize it, if you've been in that paradigm for a while.

David Deida in The Way of the Superior Man talks about either fucking the world all the way or choosing the untarnished life; the wholehearted seducer or the monk. Both of these lead towards the same goal of enlightenment and sincere fullness of self, but the idea is that you need to choose. Don't go halfway or remain undecided. The undecided man is greatly weakened by his indecision, and is vulnerable to all sorts of emotional forces pulling him this way and that, for he is much more open to compromising what's supremely important to him to the draws and motives of other entities.

 

[daviddreamer]

Agree for the most part...but you can't take away my tear jerker movies and dramas lol.

Also will heavily agree with Howells statement. I will contribute my own advice to this thread eventually...