In fact, being stunned could appear a lot like calmness.
Autonomic Nervous System
Studies also show that people with higher heart rate variability are better at ignoring distractions, delaying gratification, and dealing with stressful situations.
Anxiety, anger, depression, and loneliness are all associated with lower heart rate variability and less self-control.
Under stres - the sympathetic nervous system: fight or flee = high heart rate, low variability.
In calmness - the parasympathetic nervous system: self-control = low heart rate, high variability
Song of Myself (I)
1
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
2
Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes,
I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless,
It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked,
“Human beings can be easily satisfied with calmness and comfort. Yet restlessness was in my nature.”
I had a very calm life now. Human beings can be easily satisfied with calmness and comfort. Yet restlessness was in my nature. I wanted some action and vivid moments. I may be called spoiled for feeling unsatisfied, no doubt. Reader, I was young and youth always needs some excitement.
Aurelius wasn't only an emperor but also a philosopher who based his ideas on the traditions of Greek Stoicism, a school of thought that viewed self-control and calmness as a way of overcoming negative emotions.
