Some quick notes on health.

[Kai]

I'm a rather moody person, that is, my emotional circuit tends to go through these overly exaggerated polarized shifts on a intracircadian rhythm, a sort of hour to hour zeitgeber. I'm swinging from ecstatic to the deepest depression to unmotivated tiredness to horrible anxiety, all within the space of a morning.

After some monitoring, I've found these shifts are highly correlated with my physical status. In fact, how much sleep I've had, what and when I've eaten and the last time I've exercised and showered has more correlation to my emotional state than any other factor, including how many shitty things I've had to deal with that day. In retrospect, the former makes the latter seem meaningless in causation.

I'm finding that these physical variables /cause/ my moods. Not whoever said something mean to me on the bus, or how many deadlines I have, or whether my advisor is being helpful or not. Furthermore, if these things are taken care of the motivation and energy to do what ever I want and need to do simply arrives with ease, effortlessly.

What I'm saying is simply this: if I put all of my focus on taking care of my body, everything else in my life falls in line without any real effort to make it so on my part. When I'm eating what and when I need to eat to stay healthy, exercising and performing other maintenance tasks, and sleeping 7 hours every night, I arrive at the excitement of my work and with the needed motivation and energy to do it. All my issues and problems become solvable and as long as I'm not suddenly dropped into a warzone my mood is uplifted throughout the day. At the same time, if I'm in good physical state and I suddenly don't feel so great, I KNOW then and there is an issue that needs to be addressed, something in my life that needs to be changed.


Just some things to think about if you're unhappy.

[Triple Zero]

so you speak of monitoring? did you keep a diary with food and exercise versus mood, or is it more based on loose observations?

[Kai]

so you speak of monitoring? did you keep a diary with food and exercise versus mood, or is it more based on loose observations?

Loose observations. I didn't need any exact measurements to show a correlation, and from the intensity of correlation I inferred causation. Cause, well, I'm not a psychologist.


Mostly, I watched my emotional state before and after eating, exercising, etc. The difference is significant with a p-value of HOLY SHIT.

[Muir]

I agree with this.  Mainly because I've noticed the same things with myself and my moods.  If I'm feeling "depressed" or "stressed" etc.  it's usually because I haven't eaten for several hours (I often forget to eat - my mind gets distracted really easily and before I realise it, 6 hours have passed), or because I haven't gone outside for a few days.  If I feel tense, a warm bath followed by a cup of tea often makes me feel 100% better as does a 20 minute walk.  So basically, it IS the "little things" that matters.

[Kai]

I agree with this.  Mainly because I've noticed the same things with myself and my moods.  If I'm feeling "depressed" or "stressed" etc.  it's usually because I haven't eaten for several hours (I often forget to eat - my mind gets distracted really easily and before I realise it, 6 hours have passed), or because I haven't gone outside for a few days.  If I feel tense, a warm bath followed by a cup of tea often makes me feel 100% better as does a 20 minute walk.  So basically, it IS the "little things" that matters.

And that the little things aren't so little, yeah.

I've come to realize that these mood shifts are my body's way of saying "there is something wrong, fix it". Except for years I didn't know what was going on because in our culture we are accustomed to thinking that, if our emotions are off it must be something outside of ourselves, or at least psychological. This indoctrination breeds physical ignorance, which is clear especially from the number of obese depressed people out there.

[NotPublished]

Not just physical activity, but out door things dohelp tremendously (Just to get that bit o sun), and even playing in the dirt - I forgot exactly what it was, but there is some sort of chemical thing going on when someone is even just walking over the soil - some sorta feel-good chemical; I need to research it to get the exact information again

[Kai]

Not just physical activity, but out door things dohelp tremendously (Just to get that bit o sun), and even playing in the dirt - I forgot exactly what it was, but there is some sort of chemical thing going on when someone is even just walking over the soil - some sorta feel-good chemical; I need to research it to get the exact information again

This is true, separately, two different ways:

1. Sun - Whatever you learned about humans not being photosynthetic organisms in high school is bullshit. We do photosynthesis, just not carbohydrates. Cholecalciferol, aka vitamin D₃, is synthesized by the irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin. We can get it from our diet to some extent, but the best way is still sitting in the sun for 20 minutes.

2. Dirt - There is evidence that some soil bacteria may cause mood enhancement. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T0F-4NC5T69-D&_user=10&_coverDate=05%2F11%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1215855581&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=9088ed55d3fbb038ded48a93e67a86ef

[Telarus]

this thread is

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Not just physical activity, but out door things dohelp tremendously (Just to get that bit o sun), and even playing in the dirt - I forgot exactly what it was, but there is some sort of chemical thing going on when someone is even just walking over the soil - some sorta feel-good chemical; I need to research it to get the exact information again

This is true, separately, two different ways:

1. Sun - Whatever you learned about humans not being photosynthetic organisms in high school is bullshit. We do photosynthesis, just not carbohydrates. Cholecalciferol, aka vitamin D₃, is synthesized by the irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin. We can get it from our diet to some extent, but the best way is still sitting in the sun for 20 minutes.

2. Dirt - There is evidence that some soil bacteria may cause mood enhancement. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T0F-4NC5T69-D&_user=10&_coverDate=05%2F11%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1215855581&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=9088ed55d3fbb038ded48a93e67a86ef

I couldn't access the article without registering, but that's really cool and might even explain why I always feel so much better after gardening.

[BabylonHoruv]

Personally I am Borderline, including cyclothymic depression, so there are some days when I know I am going to be miserable and hate everyone.  food and sleep certainly effect my mood, although they usually effect my mental clarity more, the same is true, for me, with physical exercise.  The main thing that I notice has a dramatic effect on my emotional well being is meditation.  If I take the time to meditate daily (assuming it is not my time of the month to hate everyone at least) I am going to feel a lot more positive and find it a lot easier to get things accomplished.

(just personalizing it, what you said looks like pretty valuable stuff)

[Kai]

Personally I am Borderline, including cyclothymic depression, so there are some days when I know I am going to be miserable and hate everyone.  food and sleep certainly effect my mood, although they usually effect my mental clarity more, the same is true, for me, with physical exercise.  The main thing that I notice has a dramatic effect on my emotional well being is meditation.  If I take the time to meditate daily (assuming it is not my time of the month to hate everyone at least) I am going to feel a lot more positive and find it a lot easier to get things accomplished.

(just personalizing it, what you said looks like pretty valuable stuff)

To each their own.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I definitely need to eat frequently, get enough sleep, and not drink much caffeine or alcohol to be at my optimum. Also the day before my period I cry a lot but there's fuck all I can do about that.

[Jenne]

Awesome observation and correlation, Kai.  There's been sooo much HUGE upheaval in my personal life, I really have very little in the way of PHYSICAL wellness at this point.  My body's falling apart, from age, some (mild) abuse, etc.  Sleep is about the only thing I really try hard to take care of, mostly because I'm afraid of its longterm effects.  Neither of my kids let me sleep much when they were babies, and the effects on my memory are still evident.  Sleep deprivation is more harmful than most people realize.

As for the eating and exercising, I have yet to harness this.  I think I need to COMMIT to a hardcore schedule and just make the absolute EFFORT to concentrate on doing the right thing.  It's hard, though, to focus on myself in this way.  VERY hard.  I'm almost religiously against the kind of focus it would take to get me into that corner again (I was rather religious the OTHER way not too long ago).

But you've given me a lot of--dare I say it?--food for thought on catching what in my moods can be altered just through doing what I already know I want to do but don't have the bandwidth to follow through on.