Think of how emotions are defined in our popular culture; the super cool secret agent or the soldier with nerves of steel. Then there are the dippy, highly strung men and women who just can’t seem to get their lives on track.
You never see a dippy spy, well only in a comedy when he is the butt of the joke, and even then it’s usually his understated side-kick that saves the day and is actually as cool as cucumber…
Now think of how you are brought up, told constantly to control your emotions, don’t cry, don’t get angry and on it goes. A constant emotional straight jacket is put on everyone to not be emotional, show nothing and just be a physical body that stumbles through life.
But life isn’t like that, look back to your first dates, how did you feel? For days before you were a nervous wreck.
Barely able to get dressed, feeling sick to your stomach. Or the first time you got in a car and drove it on your own, the first time you got on a plane… how did the feeling of acceleration of the plane down the runway make you feel?
These are all emotions that can’t be suppressed. And shouldn’t be suppressed. Each and every emotion results in a physical outcome.
Just think back to the first date… if you know what to look for you can see a physiological response in a person if they like you; breathing gets shallower, pupils dilate. These are all due to your emotions, not the other way around. Just because your pupils dilate doesn’t mean you fall in love!!!
I work with computers all day long, I love working with computers, no emotions, no sentiment.
They don’t remember the day you wrote bad code, or just turned them off for days at a time. But at the same time they don’t laugh at your bad jokes, or put an arm round you when you are feeling down. They just sit in the corner occasionally blinking a red light at you.
Without emotions you are empty, nothing. You need emotions to feel life. To feel happy. To feel sad.
And yes sometimes they run out of control, somethings happen that are just so terrible that they will run riot, take over for days or weeks. And even that is not necessarily a bad thing. Emotions make you human. And that is a great thing!!
This edition of HLM is all about emotions; how they are you. How they control you, how you should approach them, and how you should think about them. Hope you enjoy reading this edition as much as I did.
You can read this article in our quarterly eZine, ‘Holistic Living Magazine,’ look for Edition 7 on this archive page. There’s many more articles about emotions waiting for you too!
Cassandra Jones – Editor At Large For Holistic Living Magazine
