Oh, What Feeling?
Regarding emotions; there are
thousands of books videos and conferences available for us to understand them
and almost as many experts. I am not and the best thing I can do is to share
some thoughts that you might find useful in your search for growth and
happiness.
It seems as if whenever I feel a
particular way, it is as if I have always felt that way and always will in the future. If it's something negative, I have learned to take a step back and remember this. Then when my emotions or feelings change; I see that isn’t true. This is why
I think that sometimes depression results in a feeling of hopelessness. When I
feel down, I project that onto my past, present and future. The same is true
for those times when I feel good. I project that feeling across my lifetime as
well. We need balance and we may be able to consciously contribute to that
through Intentional Meditation and even visualization.
Consider this: Is it possible to break the cycle of depression or any other negative feelings
just by the recognition of this phenomenon? Possibly, but it seems
impossible for people to see this when we are in a dark place. We often need outside help to reset our viewpoint. It may be possible to think
about this more when we are feeling good; so that we might remember this when
things aren’t going so well. We need to realize that the all of our feelings are
usually temporary and we can even change them; utilizing Intentional meditation, also known as self-hypnosis.
Our moods are very dependent upon
the individual situation. No one has studied the range and frequency of emotional changes
throughout the day. It is almost impossible to do. The study itself would be
biased, just by the act of stopping ourselves to document every change. I
imagine that there might be over a hundred mood changes in a person, during
just one day. I know that personally, it seems like I can change that many
times during a the first half of basketball game.
Most of us know this on some level.
We are constantly attempting to improve our moods, or stabilize them, but we
don’t seem to recognize that we can also project them onto situations and therefore, ourselves. We may also attract energy, either positive or negative, reinforcing any given current state. This
makes conscious intervention necessary.
Generally, we all want to feel good
and that feeling is relative to where we are. A shower is a shower is a shower, until I
go camping for a week. Then a shower is a beautiful thing. Food and water are
the same way. When I haven’t eaten for a few days, anything tastes great. After
a few days, the special feeling produced by a shower or a meal fades. Therefore,
we cannot associate any particular feeling with a particular event with certainty. The recipe
for happiness changes as your situation does. What are we to do... to be happy?
Are there physiological reasons that contribute to our feelings? Most
physicians and scientists would say so. We have many drugs to improve mood but
they are a hit or miss proposition and usually, they are not sustainable.
What if people could change their physiology through Intentional meditation? If we can heal ourselves with visualization then why
can’t we increase the production of certain receptors and chemicals, such as
Serotonin, through the same technique? This would require that we know more
specific information; such as what receptors and chemicals are available and
what do they do. This can usually be found on the internet.
We could also use Intentional Meditation.
A simple phrase such as “I am…happy” while Meditatating may help.
The more this is done, the more your unconscious will respond. It probably
knows the problem; it may just need to see some level of commitment to act in case to ensure this isn't a transitory goal. We change our desires so often, the unconscious mind has been on the sidelines since you were young. For this reason, the unconscious needs certainty and consistency before it acts.
Can we actually take responsibility
for our moods? Do we even want to? They
are a good excuse for our mistakes. Some of use drugs to change or moderate them, but that adds another variable which might only confuse you even more, while others are just naturally happy
most of the time. The act of defining a specific emotion can even be confusing to some people. When people speak of love, they are often speaking about something else. Lust or a need for stability may be called love. But it's just lust or insecurity relieved.
I believe our anger can be controlled and if that is true then anything can be. When we are confronted with an anger provoking situation, our emotions react quickly and they subjugates the intellect to support them. So the anger remains and the mind works to justify and maintain it. However, if the intellect arrives on the scene first, it can subjugate our emotions; keeping our anger under control. I have worked on this and have had modest success. Often because I forget that I can control it.
This brings up all kinds of other
issues to evaluate such as; can we feel good without feeling bad, or would managing our emotion even be possible? I don’t know, but it seems to be
worth consideration given the influence our emotions have on our lives. Do we
even want to change them at all, since they are a large part of us? My first
impulse is that we shouldn’t. But when I look at the cause of them in myself; I
see that many are the result of random events; so why shouldn’t I control them. I shouldn’t react to situations based upon a single experience, but
sometimes I do, especially if it was threatening or harmful; so my emotional
can be biased and I need to be aware of that, too. The answers to these questions will be important to our future Emolvement.
