"When we don't feel good-low mood, negative emotions, or even anxiety-we reflect on what is happening in life and search for an external cause. The collective belief we share is that what goes on "out there" directly causes what we feel "in here." So, it naturally follows that when we struggle, the mind starts seeking an external reason: work, friends, or family. The hope is that inner peace will follow when circumstances align and we are in control."
"She had been tracking her cortisol levels for some time. At first, levels were high, reflecting the stress she had been feeling. Juggling the demands of a career, raising children in a highly competitive community, and a degree of relationship strain, were all compounded by her own self-pressure. Then, she told me, without changing anything in her outer world, her cortisol levels had dropped dramatically. She no longer felt the intense stress. Anxiety had all but evaporated, and sleep came more easily."
A client tracking cortisol experienced high levels during chronic stress from career demands, parenting in a competitive community, relationship strain, and self-imposed pressure. Without changing external circumstances or behavior, cortisol dropped and anxiety and sleep problems resolved. Many people assume emotions directly mirror external events and therefore seek outside causes for inner distress. Neuroscience suggests the brain constructs emotions by predicting and interpreting bodily signals using past experience and context. When predictive models recalibrate, interoception and threat assessments change, enabling reductions in physiological stress responses even when external circumstances remain the same.
Read at Psychology Today
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