What causes a preferential state?

[Starman]

Originally Posted by jorddy

@ Starman:

I appreciate your insight on how the external environment may effect someone's mood.

A mood imposed on you by the external environment vs. a mood imposed on you by yourself.

They both may be generated by the same cause, and that cause may be adverse conditioning but this negates what some call a "good mood" and the causes behind them. Moods "good" or "bad" give us a particular character, otherwise we might go through life with a flat affect.

By yourself, your mood is a signal to what you are committing yourself to in your life.

When a mood is imposed on you, you are committing to a certain way of life due to your attachments to something that frame shifts you into that perspective.

Now, some frame shifts are extremely important. For example, the frame shifts we go through once we hit a breaking point of subconsciously doing something wrong.. This is important because the frame shift will have you realize (grow conscious) of the wrong actions and beliefs you had been basing yourself from.

Yes, a person may be committing themselves to a particular mood, but what is behind that commitment? I would suggest possibly a bio-chemical imbalance or a behavioral conditioning. I believe that we are all inextricably victims and perpetrators simultaneously. There are people who have "thought disorders" which currently is widely believed to be attributed to brain chemistry.

Though, in other circumstances, switching into moods due to external influences is not good at all.. It can point to the fact that you are at the mercy of everyone around you.. Which means that you are giving your power to those around you. Meaning that you are attached to those things around you. - Attached to them because you see them as better than you, attached to them because you see yourself as a victim, attached to them because you are living off of a premise of false needs.

In my opinion internal can not exist without external and we are simultaneously influenced both ways; influenced not necessarily in the sense of being a victim, because lots of things happen to us due to the ignorance we have of ourselves. People can transcend their mood regardless whether its' geniuses is internal or external, and learning an growing can take place without a mood swing. For me it is not so much why we change moods as it is why we allow our moods to control us. The problem is not in the mood itself but spending a long duration in a certain mood can be polarizing; Pollyanna or doom and gloom; which begs the question which mood, if any, occupies the middle ground, keeping in mind that each person's middle ground has a different psychological location. As you have stated moods can serve a valuable purpose in our growth and development. Some of the greatest insights which I have had came from some of the gloomiest moods which I found my self stuck in.


@Lemex:

I'm glad that you're enjoying :)[/quote]

[jorddy]

@ Starman:

I completely agree that internal cannot exist without external because the external expresses the internal, and the external can lead to new representations of the internal.

I believe that we are here to experience life in these human vessels in order to realize more and more.


Now, "good" and "bad" moods:

Let's say that you just walked outside and then all the sudden a car drives by a splashes you down with gutter water. You are drenched, SOAKED!

Now, depending on what the situation is, your mood may get a little sour. Your emotions will react to the circumstance based on the beliefs you have internalized beforehand.

Believing A) that now you'll be late to your date and she may just leave and the fact is that you haven't seen a girl in the past 4 months because you couldn't find one.. You'd grow very cynical.. Likely, you already were very cynical.

- Your reaction to the external world is a representation of your current belief systems.. So really, the external world is not causing your emotions, they are just triggering your current beliefs that cause those emotions.

For example - if you believe that you are a highly valuable male, that you are a huge catch, and that a relationship with the right person would be awesome.. Well then you'd find yourself playful and dominant around girls - you wouldn't allow your emotions to go crazy when the girl tells you that your shirt looks ugly.

But, if you had not believed you were valuable, then you would have been treating her much differently and as soon as she teases you on your shirt, you'll become closed in and shameful.

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Allergies is something I continuously deal with year round.. Yes, it does impact my energy level and the amount that I can focus. And depending on what I am committed to accomplishing, I can become frustrated.

And this brings us to the other form of mood.. When an external value encroaches on your ability to commit to a certain deed...

Say I want to commit to finishing up a program I am about to sell.. Then I get allergies. I am constantly sneezing, tearing up, tired, and woozy from medication.. My energy level goes from 100 to 65.. The ability I have to commit to my goal has diminished greatly. Now, I begin to act differently because the beliefs I had about my abilities have diminished due to external factors.

This circumstance is much different than the first one because the first one was based on your beliefs and how they effect your emotions, while this one is based on the external environment and how it effects your beliefs.

[Starman]

@Jorddy,

It sounds like you are talking about a conditioned response, where my reactions, or moods, are conditioned by my beliefs, or in the case of external factors, my beliefs are impacted by external stimuli still bringing forth a conditioned response. I think all of this is highly probable but it does not account for bio-chemical inadequacies or brain chemistry.

There are people he will only embrace a social learning theory, while others will only embrace a behavioral model, and still others are strictly biological oriented. There are numerous paradigms which can be used to explain the human condition and I am very eclectic in my approach.

P.S. I worked in the medical field and the field of psychology for a long time before becoming a "new age hippie."

[jorddy]

@ Starman:

Yes, I feel that you are speaking about the second circumstance - where the person's beliefs are shaped due to external stimuli (their body's neurotransmitters).

NLP secret.. Whichever emotion you are in leads to certain neurotransmitters and neuroinhibitors... So if your body is amping up particular neurotransmitters, this could most certainly lead you to be in a certain emotion.. And that emotion can most certainly impact your beliefs.. and therefore your mood.

Like any other external stimulus, it would have to be something you realize and find a solution for if you want to change.. Not to diminish the strength that one needs to get through neurobiological issues.