Eliminating External Happiness and Sadness Triggers to Improve Health
At one time, professional and college football were happiness and sadness triggers for me. Meaning that if my team won, I was happy all day and possibly the next day too. If my team lost, I was sad all day and possibly all week. This is a vicious cycle.
The fact that something I had no control over triggered my happy and sad emotions was unhealthy. Especially since it would not only impact my personal well being, but my families as well.
Last fall, I finally eliminated this behavior. I still have my favorite teams and I still root for them. However, now I protect my emotions. I don’t plan my weekends around games and I only watch when it’s convenient for me. What’s more, I don’t seek out team news and commentary so I don’t get invested in the story lines.
Eliminate External Happiness and Sadness Triggers in All Areas of Life
I believe this approach is applicable to many other areas in life. But first you have to recognize the external happiness and sadness triggers. What are the things you can’t control that trigger your emotions?
- Could it come from the salacious opinions your are listening to on Fox News, CNN, and CNBC?
- Is it a show you regularly watch on cable, Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu?
- Does it come from social media?
- Is it your child winning or losing when they compete in sports?
- Are you like me and it comes from the outcome of a professional or college sporting event?
If something you can’t control triggers happiness, then it’s likely that same thing can trigger sadness. The best thing you can do is acknowledge this, then takes steps to either eliminate or limit this trigger. If it’s something you can’t go without like cheering for your child to win, then look for an alternative trigger in the event. For example, become your child’s videographer or photographer and let the trigger be a goal of capturing great shots.
To summarize, eliminating external happiness and sadness triggers in my life is doing wonders for my health. I cannot emphasize this enough. It’s worth the effort to rid these external triggers from your life. If you have this problem, sooner or later your health is going to force you to anyway. You might as well make it sooner rather than later.