Synopsis
about the “Change You Brain Everyday” Blog
Paint fumes, red food dye, and MSG are all things that surprisingly can cause aggressive and violent behavior. If you have anger issues scan your diet and environment for these toxins
Exercise: Be a detective. When your behavior is off think about potential triggers such as artificial ingredients in food or a lack of sleep.
I will continue to do this. The fact is I’ve been doing this for probably 5 years now. I used to keep a mood tracker on a phone app. I’d study the history for trends. What I noticed was the effect that exercise had on my mood.
Every time I exercised my mood would be elevated. I usually exercised about 4 times a week. What I noticed was that I could take a day off and be fine. If I took two days off I’d still be in a pretty good mood. On the third day without exercise I would start to get annoyed more easily. What I realized was it was ok to take two days off, but If I did I’d need to get a workout in early on the third day. If I didn’t I’s be in danger of laying in bed all day or letting stupid things bother me.
It is rare that I go two day in a row with out exercise anymore. Exercise is my medicine. That said every once in a while I notice some ANTs (automatic negative thoughts). I’ll aske myself, “What’s with the shitty attitude today. Why do you care if someone’s hair looks dumb. Oh! That’s right. You’ve been “too busy” to exercise lately.”
That’s why exercise is a priority for me. Once I let it go, everything else gets effected.
The other thing that I’ve put my detective skills on is sleep. I’ll get ANT’s with tiredness but they are of a different variety. Lack of exercise leads to mainly anxiety ANTs. Lack of sleep is more depressed or low energy ANT’s. Just a few weeks ago I was feeling kinda down late in the day and despite everything going my way I felt a tiny bit blue. Then I realized I only slept 4 hours the night before and was running from task to task all day.
I realized that going to bed early was in order and I didn’t need to feel bad for not wanting to socialize.
Author – Coach Brian