What is psychological coping? It is the ability to acknowledge and accept rather than resist "what is". It could be that Mr X has been told that he has 3 months to live. If he is wise, shortly after being told of this terminal disease he will come to accept it. From that moment of acceptance he starts living his life with greater awareness, and lives his life fully for each moment. In acceptance there is freedom, in resistance there is suffering. In our situations, most of our stress is of psychological origin. Fighting or fleeing is usually of little value, hence the need for psychological coping. You see, unlike physical stress, psychological stress does not necessarily get resolved, you there fore have an entrance into all of the stress diseases because these defences, if prolonged are the beginning of such problems as ulcers, heart disease, diabetes and all of the various other conditions that occur when psychological stress continues. If stress persists, a considerable strain is placed on your stress fighting team. Your stress fighting team can only deal with one stress at a time, it can’t handle two stresses in one go. e.g. It is one thing to have your body under attack with a flu or other illness (body experiencing physiological stress). Having your views simultaneously attacked is another matter (mind experiencing psychological stress). Your body is being attacked with two different stresses. Be aware of your stresses and keep them under control. When life challenges us, when life demands an answer or somebody treats us disrespectfully or unfairly, most of us may not know what to do. In a situation like that we are likely to react with anger or fear and anxiety rather than with calmness and detachment. Psychological coping is having the ability to accept "what is"? A process of psychological coping: or ‘Emotion – Focused Coping Strategies’ Stop : Acknowledge : Accept : Awareness Attention Reflect Action & Letting go of that which has been

How an emotion affects the functioning of your body?

Book Title: A Mind to Crime by Anne Moir and David Jessel Ref: ISBN: 0-7181-3768-x

Psycho - Neuro - Immunology (P.N.I) is the study of how thoughts nervous tissue and the immune system link together. In essence the study indicates that an emotion produces neuro-chemical output, which interacts with the tissue of the body and affects their functioning. In other words, thoughts, feelings and emotions affect the functioning of the body, which in turn, re-influence thoughts, emotions, etc. Ideas which originate in the emotional brain (the right hemisphere), reaches consciousness only when they are telephoned through to the language dominated left side (the left hemisphere), the left brain then crystallizes these thoughts or feelings into verbal form to manage them. There are no meanings in any experience. Meaning comes immediately after the event (the experience) is over. It is our left brain that gives a meaning to the experience, as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t like it’, etc. It follows then that experiences take place in the right hemisphere (the non-verbal brain) and the left-brain puts the experiences into words.

Our thoughts and perceptions are caused by the activity of a relatively small number of neurons. What we desire or need or feel may be related to the subtle changes in the chemistry of our brains. When you find yourself dwelling on unhappy thoughts of past deeds, and what could have been, remember you are upsetting the biochemistry of your brain and body. The powerful chemicals (neurotransmitters) in the brain, which influence and facilitate the action of our bodies and the thoughts of our minds, interact with the body’s hormones. They in turn interact with other neurotransmitters, of many different kinds. The different neurotransmitters become active in response to different outside stimulation. Some respond to emotional stimulations; others to motor command from the brain. Some control our behaviour, some makes us happy, some makes us angry, etc.

Book Title: A Mind to Crime by Anne Moir and David Jessel Ref: ISBN: 0-7181-3768-x

Emotions are made up of three elements: •  The psychological (happening in the mind) • The physiological (happening in the body) • The behavioural (shouting, screaming, fighting, etc) The emotion we know as anger is not a physical state, (it happens in the mind first as a thought) anger is a feeling sparked by a thought and this thought is created out of the evaluation of a situation as threatening or dangerous (whether correct or incorrect). This is what triggers the anger. As humans we first know we are angry by recognising our physical responses. These can be in the form of our breathing and heart rate speeding up, muscle tensions, a tightness in the body etc. Most of us ignore the warning signals, people who don’t ignore, start to control their own thinking, thereby reducing the emotional upset which helps them control their bodily responses, this is a first step towards psychological insight. Consequently, diffusing the anger while it is happening is a positive experience, which promotes positive health rather than expressing it negatively, which distresses the body.