Relation between Thoughts, Emotions/Feelings and Behaviour and Addiction/Alcoholism

All humans have the power to observe, think about what we observe and create sense of the same. This cognition is done with inputs from our primitive sensory system which is comprised of emotions and feelings, and the processes of reflecting on and drawing conclusions from the combination of the two. Thinking produces feelings and feelings give rise to thought. The way we think about something affects the way we feel about it and what we do about it. Our thoughts and feelings influence our behaviors, choices, and ultimately, outcomes. It is the ability to think and feel that has such a tremendous impact on our lives. It creates our attitudes and this governs our behaviors, actions, direction. In short what we do and how we do it.

If one notices what one thinks, feels and does in just a day, one will realize that what we think and feel isn’t easy to catch. We get mixed up because we don’t separate our thoughts and our feelings. We express our thoughts and say that is what we are feeling. Or we express our feelings through our behavior without expressing them in our speech. To process our thoughts and feelings and resultant behavior one has to understand the difference between them and how we take decisions, conduct ourselves, respond or react to people, situations, places and things based on them.

About our thoughts, we learn that what and how we think has an effect on the way we feel which leads to acting in the ways we do.

Emotions could be primeval (survival instincts) or thought induced or sensory. They have their own power and affect our thoughts and Beliefs.

Our behavior and actions also impact our feelings and our thinking. The way and what we do has the power to change the way we feel and the way we think.

Thinking Styles: We tend to think in different ways for different purposes.

Rumination: This is the kind of thinking in which ones mind is focused on just a few thing and one thinks about these things in an almost obsessive way. This could be about hurt we received, things that made us angry, frustrated etc. this sort of thinking is usually triggered by deep feelings. These are thought loops that are repetitive and wear deep grooves into our brain. This is where the Automatic thoughts that rule our lives are born, the birthplace of feelings we don’t want to feel. Addictive thinking is what happens here.

Reflection:  All of us do reflect on the events that occur in our lives. This helps us to to learn from our experience, to understand  the happening, to defuse any extreme feelings and to make decisions and choices based on the facts and not irrational emotional thinking. This is known as a mature way of dealing with life’s variables. It provides us a wide range of possibilities to consider in formulating our choices.

Meditative: It is being proved that a meditative state can change the neural connections of our brain and produce states of inner calm where answers to deep questions and emotional control is acquired. That is the trance like thought-less state wherin one merely experiences without any thought. This is different from meditative thinking where one takes up an event or subject and begins a deep inquiry into that. The meditative thinking is a state of flow in which lot of answers are born seemingly automatically, more sensed than cogitated. It requires very intense thinking on any given subject . this is the state that aids us in recovery from active addictive thinking patterns. This is the state that provides the space for change in deep rooted beliefs and thought patterns.

Addiction is a state of being in which one is extremely attached to the pleasure of the substance induced high. The fear of the loss of the comfortable numbness that is the effect of the substance is what keeps one in the constant loop of intoxication. This deep seated belief is possible to be removed with a combination of meditation and reflection. The ruminative thinking of negative, unrealistic and /or irrational beliefs are exposed and brakes can be put on to develop new thinking processes and healthy belief systems.

The choices and decisions that were dictated and controlled by the negative thinking cycles are changed by the healthier thinking patterns. This translates into better life outcomes that induce better mental health and wellness.

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