Firstly, what do I mean by "common sense."

The Oxford English Dictionary states that it is, "good sense and sound judgment in practical matters: example: 'a common-sense approach’." As we may know, this definition relates to one’s ability to make decisions of the intelligent sort.

Question, what is the origin of the phrase?

Warning: Geeky content ahead from the website www.etymonline.com

In the late 1300s, someone decided "common sense" referred to "an internal mental power supposed to unite (reduce to a common perception) the impressions conveyed by the five physical senses (Latin sensus communis, Greek koine aisthesis). Thus "ordinary understanding, without which one is foolish or insane" (1530s); the meaning "good sense" is from 1726. Also, as an adjective, common-sense "characterized by common sense" (1854)."

My understanding of the above information is "common sense" is the use of the body’s five senses (quick review: sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch) to help the mind make decisions.

Wait a minute! The body informing the mind? That’s nuts. The mind is the ruler of the body… or is it?

Our bodies do, or attempt to do, everything we ask of it. Whatever silly things we as humans think to do, our bodies will give it a go. Bungee jumping and running marathons come to mind.

We also ask the body to do mundane things such as stay up late to watch TV, eat more than we "should," smoke cigarettes (I am a former smoker so I’ve been there), drink a six-pack of anything, eat a sno-cone too fast, go to a Ted Nugent concert without earplugs, and so on.

These are more obvious things which, if we were honestly listening to our bodies and its wisdom, we would probably not do them. Our bodies never lie. I repeat, "NEVER lie." Our body is always paying attention to what we do to it even if our mind is totally unaware of the consequences.

Sometimes when we are aware of the consequences, our minds create dang good reasons for why it is okay to do those things. It is as if the mind is addicted to creating the body’s suffering.

One of the more insidious ways we ignore our body’s common sense is the information we feed it.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the stomach digests not only food and drink, it also processes experience, emotions, and knowledge, aka information.

The menu of topics, items, subjects, things (what have you) floating about in our society at present on the international, national, regional, state, county, town, and neighbor level which we may or may not have an opinion about is vast.

Whether it is politics, sports, inflation, deflation, gas prices, food prices, money concerns in general, traffic, giant balloons, UFOs, education, rock n’roll, disco, a dangling preposition, "proper English,"gas stoves, air freshers (a personal favorite), science, religion, "duck season-wabbit season", the list goes on and on and on. There is a potential source of stress lurking on every street corner, web page, social media app, and news source.

Our current society, generally speaking, seems to be addicted to stress and therefore suffering. Even if we agree with what is being said (so much of what is being said is in opposition to what someone else is saying), our body produces an emotional response. This emotional response is fear, anger, sadness, worry, grief, or some combination of them.

Fear, anger, and worry are generally considered the three primary emotions of what we often call the "stress response." We can fairly say that "stress" is a primary source of chronic disease and illness in modern societies.

Everything from heart disease, cancer, strokes, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, liver diseases, kidney diseases, obesity, substance abuse, and mental health conditions can all be linked to the effects of stress on the body according to TCM.

From the Western medicine point of view, scientific studies show that fear, anger, and worry produce the neurotransmitters cortisol and adrenaline.

According to the Mayo Clinic, "Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues."

"Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or harmful in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes. This complex natural alarm system also communicates with the brain regions that control mood, motivation and fear."

After the initial triggering of the stress response, the adrenaline and cortisol levels drop and the body returns to its "normal" function levels and life goes on.

And what is "normal?" There is no "normal," because my "normal" is based on my life, my experience. Your "normal" is based on your life. The baselines for our "normal" functions are all different.

The sources of anger, fear, and worry in our society are pervasive. Back to the street corners and the lurking triggers. The triggers are frequent and at our fingertips. We are surrounded by potential triggers.

Cortisol is very helpful; however, continual exposure to it has dire consequences. If we allow ourselves to be continually triggered, we produce too much cortisol which has been linked to weight gain, acne, thinning skin, easy bruising, slower healing, muscle weakness, severe fatigue, irritability, difficulty concentrating, headaches, and high blood pressure.

Scared you yet?

Here is the kicker, most times we choose our emotions. What?!?!

Think about all the reasons you choose to be angry. Think about the reasons for your choice to worry. Think about what you choose to be fearful about. Fear can be a tricky emotion, sometimes we have genuine reasons to be fearful, and there are times we choose it when we don’t have to.

Most of us don’t realize we choose our emotions. We believe other people MAKE us angry, worry, happy, sad. And here is the rub. If we believe others make us feel emotions, then we give the power of choice away. We give away OUR power. Quite frankly, not everyone deserves our fear, anger, joy, worry, and grief. Why give it to them?

Where’s my proof? I believe the fact we sometimes don’t choose to be fearful, it happens in some automatic response, points to the possibility that sometimes we can choose NOT to be fearful. What scares me, may not scare you.

Angry yet? If you say I made you angry. Please pause.

These are just black marks on a page. In and of themselves, the black squiggles on the page are doing nothing. You are the one who is interpreting them. Based on your beliefs, you create thoughts. In the presence of these thoughts, you become angry. Am I your thoughts or did you choose those thoughts and beliefs? Based on your choices, you became angry. Is not the anger then your choice?

Even if you didn’t become angry, can you follow the logic of my proposition?

Stop. Look. Listen.

This is how I learned to prepare to cross the street as a kid. We can apply this same ancient wisdom to every interaction and event of our day.

I would add touch, smell, and taste to the mix. Why not use all of our senses, our common sense, to pay attention to life around us? It can only help. When we use our common senses, the wisdom of our body, we can make more informed choices and live healthier lives.