{"id":866,"date":"2009-05-18T22:11:12","date_gmt":"2009-05-19T02:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifewithhappiness.com\/?p=866"},"modified":"2018-10-02T13:36:54","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T17:36:54","slug":"mood-and-language-which-comes-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/2009\/05\/mood-and-language-which-comes-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Mood and Language: which comes first?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent coaching teleclass a participant asked, \u201cis it our mood that creates our language, or is it the words and stories we use that create our mood?\u201d\u00a0 She was looking for a neat and crisp definition of how people work.
\nIt ain\u2019t that simple.\u00a0 Figuring out how people work is like solving the Chicken or Egg puzzle \u2013 which came first?
\nThe answer to the above question is not either\/or; it\u2019s Yes.\u00a0 Both.
\n\"venn-bel2\"Our head (and our language and stories) and our heart (our emotions\/reactions) and our physical self (behavior, non-verbals) are inextricably connected \u2013 each affects the other two.
\nThe mood or emotion we\u2019re in affects our behavior and it influences what we say and what we think.\u00a0 Our thoughts\/language lead to the emotion we\u2019re in and also affect our behavior.\u00a0 And of course our behavior leads to consequences that subsequently influence our reactions and stories.
\nA recent comic strip illustrated this principle beautifully.\u00a0 It\u2019s called Non Sequitur (distributedby Universal Press Syndicate).\u00a0 Some context is important.\u00a0 The main character, Danae, is a very wise 10-year old girl who wears a black T-shirt emblazoned with a skull, and she is always in a foul mood, believing that everything wrong in the world is the fault of a conspiracy spawned by \u201cbooger-brained boys.\u201d<\/p>\n