Beautiful Creatures
Beautiful Creatures
If there is one thing that illness, dysfunction or unhealthiness does, is that it brings us an air of vulnerability. There is also a glimpse of mortality, finality or completion.
At ground zero we can re-assess or re-evaluate our values in life. Health then represents our core value in life. In other words, we only have an abundance of health equal to our core values or propositions by which we behave and act in life.
Living by the space we keep empty in our heart.
“There is a place in the heart that will never be filled. A space we will know it more than ever. There is a place in the heart that will never be filled and we will wait, and wait, in that space.” – Beautiful Creatures (The Movie)
Happiness and unhappiness are not endpoints of one continuum. It is not just the absence of misery, the negation of the negative but something positive also. It is also a reward and pleasure system/process.
And this process is also multi-dimensional and inter-dependent. The reward pathway is the brain’s dopamine system which may or may not derail the pleasure pathways where the brain manufactures its own opiates, endorphins and enkelphins for the body.
“There are more suicides than homicides in America today. The drugs to treat these problems/issues are approximately 8% of the world’s economy equivalent to the gas and oil industry. It is a huge problem and one that no doubt requires everyone’s attention, awareness and action to change.” – Helen Fisher (TedTalks)
Ruby Wax states in her TedTalk “What’s so Funny about Mental Illness”. [1] It is a sense of shame because there is nothing to show or see wrong with (you) a person. And brain sickness gets no sympathy. You’re always in a constant state of alarm, an ongoing nagging tape, continuously playing. What used to make you safe now drives you insane. Your pets are happier than you are!
Now, that description does not sound too crazy, does it? Careful, don’t commit yourself, ha ha!
Maybe the statistics are wrong, its more than 1 in 4 people afflicted with mental illness (as opposed to diagnosed).
Regardless of facts, statistics, testimonials and stories, our values are grounded hormonally in the brain’s dopamine system. The biological driver is the incentive and motivational force of wanting in life.
We are social beings from birth. We learn and practice imitation to empathy to compassion. We heal and recover faster when immersing ourselves in nature. We stimulate the brain’s reward system with acts of cooperation. We forget about ourselves when ‘in flow’ service to others, or in the act of sex. [2]
The self focused attention brings our mood down!
Our emotional desires change everything, the brain’s wiring.
- The sex drive
- Romantic attraction
- Attachment
- Social status (dominance vs. prestige)
- Material gains
- Maslow’s hierarchy
All of these represent shifts in the value systems. The process of re-evaluation has been defined as ‘the optimal power’ to make these value shifts happen. To kick the current/present habit or addiction, which is the lack of our true health freedom, now represents the beginning of our health care – the foundation of your health.
References
[1] Ruby Wax ‘What’s so Funny about Mental Illness” Ted Talk – http://on.ted.com/Wax
[ted id=1584]