emotions

 Humans are emotional beings. Emotions move through our bodies every minutes of every day. They carry massive amounts of information with them. These diverse messages can be distinguished with absolute certainty. Emotions are our native language. 

We receive these messages as sensations in our body. These sensations give us a remembering. The familiar emotions that remain at low intensity are just the stuff of our everyday life. Emotions communicate with all of our intelligences. What we see, we feel in our body. What we touch, we feel in our body. What we hear, we feel in our body. Without our emotions we are stripped of our intuition. We cannot make decisions or set proper boundaries. It is difficult to behave skillfully in relationships. 

It is possible to become disconnected with our emotions. We disconnect when we do not feel our body. The conduit for the messages is unplugged. Trauma is one event that can cause humans to dissociate from their bodies. Dissociation is the experience of leaving the body. This separation is triggered again and again by the conditions of our environments. So it happens that we practice and get quite good at leaving our bodies. We are not home to receive the message. 

Learning to work with your emotions will require you to focus on your body, even when unheard emotions become very loud indeed. If we do not pay attention, they will find a way to get our attention. 

Emotions are not a sign of imbalance. They provide protection and security from the ever changing realities of our lives. They increase people's ability to stay focused in their bodies. We are just embodied spirits. Our bodies are our native land. 

Unfortunately, we do not grow up as emotive people; we grow up as people who learn not to emote. Our reactivity to emotions reflect our cultures displeasure with emotions. The socially accepted view is that there are good ones and there are bad ones. The good  ones make us easy to be around. The bad ones make us difficult to be around and all the ensuing consequences of that. The good emotions are happiness, pleasantness, joy and some appropriate sadness. There is quite a list of bad emotional states. There is sadness that lasts too long, anger, depression, rage and fury, hatred, jealousy, fear, shame and guilt. How are you doing with maintaining the good emotions? 

One of the more unskillful ways we have used to not feel or listen to our bodily sensations and the messages they bring to us is to transform them. Transforming an emotion usually means repressing the life out the real but unwanted emotion. Then fabricating a better one. Completely missed the message. Nothing but confusion. 

Emotions only come in a boxed set. Each emotion has its own valid place in our lives. It is a beautiful continuum of colors. One supports the other. Interconnected. Working as a team. 

How lucky are we? It is a brilliant plan. What could possibly go wrong? 

Nx