Today I woke up around my regular Tues/Thursday scheduled time, 6:15 am and fortunately I wasn’t exhausted… Class starts downtown in Chicago near the John Hancock around 8:30… I’m not a morning person but going to this class doesn’t bother me, like I’ve stated before my teachers are wonderful and so are my classmates… After class today I was really wanting to try Red Mango. Red Mango is the only all-natural, kosher and certified gluten-free frozen yogurt fortified with Ganeden BC30TM, a natural probiotic that can help support a healthy immune and digestive system. Red Mango also has all of yogurt’s natural goodness, such as calcium and protein,
and is the first frozen yogurt retailer to receive the National Yogurt Association’s Live & Active Cultures seal. There’s a couple located close by I think I’m getting my fix tomorrow afternoon with Pete 
Dinner today after my workout was my NEW GOJIandME CEREAL that I talked about in my previous post with a handful of blueberries half a cup of milk and 4 strawberries! I’m taking Megan and Maryann‘s advice and doing no-impact workout tomorrow because of my knees. Lana‘s advice to make sure that I go to a running specialty store for new shoes every 300-500 miles or 6 months is a must as well! Sami is having a giveway on her blog multigrain Cherrios giveaway to be exact check it out!
Hope your Wednesday’s are wonderful! God bless!
Snacked on some cacao nibs after
I read an article today before class about overreacting. I really enjoyed this article a lot. It made me think about the way I act and how to avoid over-reacting to remarks from people I love.
Barriers I need to overcome:
The triggering emotions…. There are four main triggering emotions for overreaction:
- Envy
- Rejection
- resentment at being criticized
- loss of control
Its apparent that even the most seemingly benign interactions may spark one of these responses and I think we are all culprits of acting like this at times… When these emotions occurring within us our “fight or flight response” is triggered and it limits our ability to reaction RATIONALLY or CONSTRUCTIVELY. When someone triggers these reactions within you, you begin to see this person as being “all good” or “all bad” at those specific moments and there is NO redeeming features that person has that can categories them in another categories except GOOD or BAD. I thought about that for a while and found that when someone triggers those emotions in me, at that moment, my whole perception of the person has changed and I immediately label that as a negative person. After this takes place a process known as “FLOODING” occurs.
Flooding: when EVERY OLD NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL MEMORY ASSOCIATED WITH THE PERSON OR SITUATION COMES BACK INTO YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS… how many of you guys can recall those flooding moments occurring when arguing with your mom, dad, sister, or boyfriend? I do, all the time. The “black or white” response (labeling a person as either fully good or bad) is intensified by flooding. Flooding pushes us to categorize people into “good or bad” even more. After flooding occurs you feel JUSTIFIED in having an outburst because you have convinced yourself that this person is completely good due to negative emotional memories you have recalled.
This process sound familiar? Yea, thought so.
How to cope this is some things I’ve put together and found from the article to help you cope with OVERREACTION.
Notice the body’s signals: Your Neck may get tense and your heart may start to pound due to anxiety. if you are IN TUNE with your body and recognize these signs you’ll be better able to shift emotional gears
Breathe: breathing consciously will help inturrupt the fight of flight response and change gears out of over reaction mode.
Asses your state: Feeling angry? sad? tired? ragged? or are you just experiencing lack of nutrition and low blood sugar. If you know that you maybe in a state of anger due to outside factors of the comment made withdrawl from the situation until you more centered and composed
(this is probably my FAVORITE STEP)… NAME THE EMOTIONS:
Neurologically, overreaction is a Loss of access to the LEFT brain. “Naming the feeling that you’re having at that exact moment (anger,depressed, rage, loss of esteem) requires reflection and searching the memory and that is a LEFT brain activity. Therefore, searching for the name of the feeling reestablishes the neural networks that connect left brain and right, which RESTORES BALANCE!
Recast Criticism: Strive to re-frame the less than positive input as USEFUL information. In the face of criticism or what you view as an self esteem blow, ask yourself: What can I get from this feedback? How can I use this to improve myself or my situation? Did this person intend to hurt your feelings or did you put a negative spin on the interaction? The truth is sometimes people do say things to hurt us because the embody JEALOUSY, REJECTION, LOSS OF CONTROL or RESENTMENT OF BEING CRITICIZED themselves. Those people are the ones who we are better off without. When interacting with family or important people to us, it’s our jobs to realize that the interaction is NEVER intended to hurt us or break down our self-esteem down. I am a culprit of feeling rejection when being criticized, or when people state observations about the way I am/act/look. This is probably because I have always equated observational comments about who I am/how I act from people as negative when in fact observations can be positive too. I need to keep in mind that if a classmate of mine were to call me aggressive (for example) it doesn’t mean I’m overbearing or pushy toward other people it may in fact mean that I make an all out effort to win or succeed in the classroom:
Aggressive is defined as BOTH:
The first definition can be define as negative but the second is a quality I would love to possess.
Overall, it is simply our OWN CHOICE to take our interactions with people and assume the BEST in people’s words, not the worst. God would want us to assume the best in others, not the worst.
Amen.
Do you tend to overreact to benign comments ? How do you cope with criticism or comments that may be hurtful from family or loved ones??
Harvey S. Firestone 
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