NO! YOUR INTERPRETATION IS WRONG!
No, if your body is feeling out of it in the morning, discomfort in its stiffness and lethargy, it is not a sign of being depressed or even of suffering from the feeling of anxiety we often get in the morning. The "feeling of anxiety" is just a feeling of something being not quite right in the body, but it is not anxiety itself - it is just the "belief" that the sensation means that you are anxious - it is just an interpretation. (Note that people use the term "feeling" when actually they are talking of a thought or belief. "I am "feeling" that that is not true" is actually "I am thinking (or I beliefer) that it is not true." A feeling is not a thought, it is just a sensation.)
This page is in the Psychology section, Emotion Management, because it is so intrinsically linked in, since body signals are designed to get one to move (or rebalance), which is the very definition of e-motion.
Remember, please, that if the body is out of balance the brain's sensors will be aware of that and attempt to get a resolution via sending a electrochemical signal to the centers that would tend to resolve the imbalance. If it is severe, the signal is more urgent. (And if it is perceived as urgent, it will cause one more anxiety and discomfort.)
If we didn't muddy the waters with made-up stuff, this system would operate just fine. If there were danger, the system would motivate us into action to solve the danger. Extreme danger creates extreme emotions in order to create extreme action, which is appropriate to extreme danger. This would happen very seldom if ever in today's world. Yet we have extreme emotions so we must, therefore, "make up" some dangers/threats.
99% of the signals we are conscious of are unnecessary and false alarms, causing us to swing out of balance and to greater extremes, which require extreme actions to bring the body back into harmony.
Since so many of the signals are from erroneous data, we are now left with the task of screening out the signals for veracity and for seeing what is the appropriate action to get things back in balance or to just turn off the false alarm. (The only real alarms are those that deal with real threats and real needs to rebalance just from physical needs. The rest is all "created" by us, with, yes, physiological effects from the thoughts - and, of course, we have to either cut off the source of the false alarms, stop the alarm quickly by correcting it, or deal with it in the most effective overall way for the long term.)
Rule 1. Be aware that most signals are from false alarms, so they need screening.
Notice that when I feel "upset" I am experiencing a general, undefined, vague alarm - kind of an amorphous blob that I cannot wrestle to the ground. Notice also that I have developed lots of strategies to relieve these - and those strategies seemed to work and did in fact work for the short term. My brain then remembered them and generated a recording of what to do - which we, if we are keeping ourselve in-charge, can veto and replace.
One of the most useful exercises is to define more specifically what is going on, such as "my breathing is rapid, my shoulders are tense, my heart is beating a little fast, my head feels dizzy (I would then define that vague term: my temples feel pressure and the back of my neck feels tense and tight), my jaw is tight, my eyes feel strained, etc. and then if I could I would say I am thinking that I am behind and that this project will never get finished and I'll have wasted my time and my life [big vague statements that are problems to be solved in themselves].
Bad feelings are always from ill-defined vague and/or erroneous knowledge. It is our job in this case to know that fact so we'll be sure to screen everything and to see what is actually needed [I just need to calm myself right now, breathe deeply, and write down what is going on and see what the problem is that needs to be solved, if indeed there is one].
IF THERE IS AN ACTUAL PROBLEM, THEN SOLVE IT!
The strategies for solving the upset feelings usually involve some sort of chemical or a distraction. [Notice I didn't say they solved the problem. With most people the problem is never solved or completely solved because they don't choose to do the necessary completion process - and solving the cause and not just the symptom. If we only solve symptoms, the problem will repeat. A bit like my old saying "What you do not complete, you are bound to repeat," over and over and over - which is not a pleasant experience nor a good idea. See Problem Solving section.]
Most people just don't solve the problem and just keep dealing with the symptoms, kind of like arm wrestling themselves and often losing...needlessly, uselessly, wastefully. One ought to heed the old saying: if it isn't working, figure out something else to do! (Duh!)
MOST USED, BUT OFTEN HARMFUL
The strategies that work to relieve short term discomfort but have harmful side effects and which are the most commonly used are:
Numb out to relax - alcohol, drugs
Chemically overcome it through natural chemicals: eat, sugar
Distract by watching TV, computer games and random stuff
Avoid
THE RIGHT STRATEGIES, BOTH SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM
The right strategies, almost always are relatively simple:
Screen it out as to what it means and note whether there is a problem to deal with.
(getting a cold, actually very tired, etc.)
See if it is from a valid thought and, if not, dismiss it. (And breath a sigh of relief)
Calm yourself through the calming methods (meditation, breathing, relaxing the body...)
Exercise (a valid chemical solution)
Drink water, eat a small snack
Write down the problem and see if it is valid and then solve it if it is solvable.
Distract oneself in the moment if needed (until you have time to address the problem)
Change your focus to something that is uplifting, reassuring, and/or inspiring; use your own developed arsenal of powerful relevant statements.
WE OFTEN MISINTERPRET AND ADD FUEL TO THE FIRE
Ohmigod, this is terrible! (Upsetting the body even more, so the need to calm it is increased, motivating more use of the automatic way of solving it, which is usually the wrong way.) To an undiscriminating child or adult any upset might mean being out of control and experiencing dire consequences so that the person goes into a kind of frenzy and a feeling also of being overwhelmed. Unfortunately, this interpretation occurs when the situation is entirely handleable and also usually has very small, if any, actual effects in and of itself. The problem is the chemicals generated by the extreme danger that is made up in the mind.
For me, this is what I observed:
I feel "uneasy" later in the evening, so I eat something to ease it. Clearly, I am not actually hungry or at least I won't starve to death if I don't eat after dinner, as many other people can do it. Here I am not even being specific enough to ask if I am hungry and need the food (often ice cream instead of yogurt and blueberries). It is an unquestioned automatic response, though I do have a conversation about how unhealthy it is and that I better not do it, especially if I want to be at my prime weight and health - but it is often a no-win conversation after which I don't feel so hot emotionally.
So what I did, after fully understanding about how to deal with discomforts and how to "be" with them, is begin to exercise my rational choices. I didn't want my discomforts to run my life, as if I was a powerless victim to them. At first, I thought it would be too much to just swear off of everything, as my past declarations of never eating anything white went by the wayside, often with ice cream every night, beyond just a little.
I started by saying to myself that I thought I could do something very definite with no ambiguity. So, I started once a week fasts for a day (with a small snack before bed to help me sleep). And I noticed the discomfort was not so bad. A little hunger pang here and there but no real loss in energy (in fact, energy seemed smoother and didn't seem to drop). This helped me see on normal days that my "hunger" or "I wanna eat, now!" signals were often not real nor imperative - I could see rationally that I had eaten within a reasonable number of hours before and that I didn't need to eat until regular times for meals or snacks. I also manipulated the signals a bit by eating more avocados (fats last along time) and protein with small carb amount for snacks and plenty of fiber at breakfast. So, this shifted from reactive more over to being in charge. I could see that I can choose to let the discomfort be AND to know that it is minor, dismissing it to being unimportant and even ok to leave in the background - and just move on anyway.
[Doing this added to my "discipline" muscle, but also, as I repeated it, my brain wiring actually shifted so that it was easier plus it became a habit, which was automatic and effortless.]
I also wrote out a clear statement of the costs and benefits of the racket I was pulling on myself:
If I eat ice cream late at night, I get a "false payoff" of feeling a bit better, but I notice that it is kind of rote eating, where I am not savoring it, so I think the pleasure diminishes rapidly after starting. The cost to me is that I don't sleep as well, I've shocked my body with too much sugar and other bad stuff to process. The next day I feel less energetic and a bit logy. And I will gain weight. The worst effect over time has got to be that it's just plain bad for my health - I can't go on assuming, like so many people do, that my body will somehow be able to manage to overcome the bad effects. It is poisonous to my system and to my life. It causes me to feel less powerful and not as good about myself.
I resolve to give myself a Pause before acting on such impulses plus to become masterful at just allowing the discomfort to be in the background, allowing it to pass in 1 1/2 minutes (for an unrestimulated emotion) to 12 minutes for a physical craving or uncomfortability. When I eat, I'll do the old thing I've heard so many times but ignored, I'll savor eat (eat slowly) so that it is more satisfying per mouthful and so I won't keep on eating when my stomach says I better keep on cramming it down [that's another signal I will not let be considered as a true indicator of what I should do.
I put the two paragraphs above on an index card and read it when needed [kept it in a pocket so it was available, though it can be folded into a wallet].
I interpret full sinuses as my being tired. It kind of feels similar, so I have to check in with myself rationally to see if I need to respond and rest. Did I get enough sleep last night? If I did, it's probably not real, though I could do a five minute eyes closed relax session to see if it refreshes me enough. To deal appropriately with this, I should wash out my sinuses.
