Bring4th

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How many times have you heard yourself say: I’m upset, or I’m angry, or I’m happy? If you are typical, many times a day. But stop for a moment and consider what you are actually saying. You are saying “I am …. (some specific emotion).” Whether you mean to or not, you are defining yourself as being your emotions.

Actually, when you are in the grip of a strong emotion, it really feels all encompassing, as if there is no part of “you” that isn’t that emotion. In fact, sometimes a negative emotion so feels like who we are that we resist letting go of it even when we dislike having the feeling. In other words, often we seem to want to hold on to feelings because it seems as if giving up the feeling is like giving up part of ourselves.

Take a moment and remember a time when you felt angry at someone and you knew on some level that the person really hadn’t done anything so terrible and that you ought to let go of the anger. Take a moment and really make the incident real. … Do you remember that some part of you didn’t want to let go of the anger, as if you’d be losing some part of yourself if the emotion were to stop?

It also can be difficult to let go of an emotion when it feels as if the emotion is validating the meaning we’ve given an event. It can feel to us as if letting go of the emotion will invalidate that meaning and letting go of the meaning will invalidate the feeling (which is who we feel we are). An example of this would be someone who doesn’t do something for us that he promised to do. We might give that event the meaning that I can’t count on people and I have to do everything myself, which likely would lead us to feel angry. It feels to us as if it really is true that we can’t count on people. So the anger justifies the meaning we gave the event (which has no inherent meaning). At the same time the meaning justifies the feeling, so we might resist letting go of the meaning we made up.

But is that actually true? Are we our emotions?

If we really are our emotions, then when an emotion disappeared, we should disappear … but we don’t. Let me explain this outrageous statement: If we say we are anything specific, and that thing disappears, then logically we would have to disappear. But we don’t disappear when our emotions disappear.

Not only do emotions fade away automatically after a period of time, it also is possible to stop emotions on the spot by getting rid of the two things that cause them: stimuli that have been conditioned and our occurrings, in other words, the meaning we give events moment-to-moment.

As I’ve explained in several posts, we unconsciously and automatically give meaning to meaningless events all day long. Because events that have no inherent meaning can’t cause us to have feelings, the feelings we have must come from the meaning we give the events. And by dissolving the meaning—in other words, how events occur for us—we can dissolve all the negative feelings that arise from the meaning.

So if the emotions we have usually dissipate on their own after a while and if our emotions are primarily the result of meaning we give events and we can dissolve most emotions merely by dissolving the meaning that gave rise to them, can you get that it is more accurate to say we “have” emotions, but are not our emotions?

The two best ways to get rid of negative emotions are to dissolve the conditionings and the occurrings that cause the feelings. But if you don’t know how to do that, however, it still is possible to lessen the impact emotions have on you. How? By noticing when you feel swept up by a strong negative emotion that “you” are observing your feeling. And the “you” that is doing the observing is not the same “you” that is having the emotion. That realization will enable you to make a clear distinction between “being” your emotion and “having” an emotion. And that will enable you to get some perspective on the emotion and extricate yourself from it to a large extent.

*sniped* from You are not your feelings, some interesting discussion on the article there as well...
I really respect this thread. I couldn't agree more. I try to dedicate myself to meditate every day, one exercise I experienced should be shared.

I decided to meditate next to the pellet stove. I sat next to the fire and experienced the sensation of heat, and really felt the fire radiating it's heat against my body. While in meditative stance, I perceived the heat and the emotion of being "hot" as just an emotion. With this being said, I surrendered to the "pain" of being hot. With the continuing of focusing on my breath, the pain was no longer existing.

It was cool and fun. Got a little red mark in my arm but it was worth it lol!
Funny enough, I am almost done writing a book on this very subject. I will give you guys a free cliff's notes version.

Negative emotions are catalysts for our spiritual development. Unexpressed / repressed emotions lead to energetic blockages (distortions) in the mind-body which leads ultimately to further mental/physical health catalysts. I call this the law of escalation. If we try to ignore our catalysts they will inevitably continue to build upon each other until the catalyst is sufficient enough to create understanding/change or death.

Negative emotions should be dissolved as soon as they are evoked to prevent further damage.

The best ways to dissolve negative emotions:

Effirmations: I coined this term in contrast to affirmations. Affirmations use the words "I AM" to positively reprogram the mind/body/spirit complex. Effirmations use the words "I FEEL" and are used to release negative energy in the mind/body/spirit complex. An effirmation is simply stating the feelings that you are experiencing at the time you are experiencing them, "I feel angry" "I feel sad". Repeat the effirmations over and over again until the emotions are released.

Mindfulness meditation: Focusing on the negative emotion and observing it equanimously. If you are not equanimous, ie you react, you escalate the negative emotion.

Journaling: Writing out the effirmations on paper.

Letter writing: Writing letters to the people or objects who have triggered negative emotions within you. Unedited and uncensored raw truth allows the emotions to transfer on paper. Writing is more effective than typing. These letters are best destroyed rather than sent. Then writing a response letter back to yourself from their perspective in the form of your ideal response. And a final connection letter expressing acceptance of the situation.

When the negative emotions are extinguished, it is a good idea to reprogram the mind/body with affirmations using the antidote you desire.

For example, if someone pisses me off I will write an angry letter and destroy it. Then I will effirm, "I feel angry, I feel angry, I feel angry..." until the emotion has dissolved. This may take minutes, or hours, depending on the severity of the catalyst. When I have reached a state of calm I will affirm "I am peaceful. I am tranquil. I am harmonious..." over and over and until I feel the shift within.

Hope this helps.
How do you feel about your emotions?

You are in (e)Motion.
Seth Material - Session 644, Page 213 Wrote:As with Andrea, you must accept the validity of your feelings while realizing that they are about certain issues or conditions, and are not necessarily factual statements of your reality. 'I feel that I am a poor mother,' or, 'I feel that I am a failure.' These are emotional statements and should be accepted as such. You are to understand, however, that while the feelings have their own integrity as emotions, they may not be statements of fact. You might be an excellent mother while feeling that you are very inadequate. You may be most successful in reaching your goals while still thinking yourself a failure.

By recognizing these differences and honestly following the feelings through - in other words, by riding the emotions - you will be led to the beliefs behind them. A series of self-revelations will inevitably result, each leading you to further creative psychological activity. At each stage you will be closer to the reality of your experience than you have ever been.

The conscious mind will benefit greatly as it becomes more and more aware of its directing influence upon events. It will no longer fear the emotions, or the body, as threatening or unpredictable, but sense the greater unity in which it is involved.

The emotions will not feel like stepchildren, with only the best dressed being admitted. They will not need to cry out for expression, for they will be fully admitted as members of the family of theself. Now, again, some of you will say that your trouble is that you are too emotional, too sensitive. You may believe that you are too easily swayed. In such cases you are afraid of your emotions. You think their powers so strong that all reason can be drowned within them.

No matter how open it may seem that you are, you will nevertheless accept certain emotions that you think of as safe, and ignore others, or stop them at particular points, because you are afraid of following them further. This behaviour will follow your beliefs, of course. If you are over forty, for instance, you may tell yourself that age is meaningless, that you enjoy much younger people, that you think young thoughts. You will accept only those emotions that appear to be in keeping with your ideas of youth. You become concerned with the problems of the young. You accept what you think of as optimistic health giving thoughts.
Only when I have spiritual awakening do my emotions and feelings get very intense. Otherwise they are just pretty bland. Usually a degree of sadness.
Ra stated that emotions are like signposts, which I think is very close to what some psych theories on affect (emotions) are also pointing to - they are merely markers. Emotions are also neither good/positive nor bad/negative. They are physiological markers that help us to make decisions on what to do like hearing car alarms and clocks telling us what time it is.

It's not so much the emotion that is important but how we interpret and react to those emotions (we assess emotional experience as being good or bad, we make inferences on who we think we are based on how we interpret our emotional experience, etc.). That is more domain of the mind complex, which is where we can do a lot of work to know self more.

Unbound

E-Motions = Energy Motions = constant re-balancing of centers according to catalyst processed
(05-11-2014, 11:34 PM)reeay Wrote: [ -> ]Ra stated that emotions are like signposts, which I think is very close to what some psych theories on affect (emotions) are also pointing to - they are merely markers. Emotions are also neither good/positive nor bad/negative. They are physiological markers that help us to make decisions on what to do like hearing car alarms and clocks telling us what time it is.

It's not so much the emotion that is important but how we interpret and react to those emotions (we assess emotional experience as being good or bad, we make inferences on who we think we are based on how we interpret our emotional experience, etc.). That is more domain of the mind complex, which is where we can do a lot of work to know self more.

so when one experiences an emotion, it is like a signalling for something.

what is the next step then, do you think?

how can we dig deeper, and locate the thing that is being signalled by the emotion?

I've personally found that emotions triggered in 'real time' or in real-life interactions can sort of 'stick' for a while in consciousness, but one is not able to process those emotions because one is in the middle of talking to someone, or one is required to devote the attention to continue one's task at work. In that case, the emotion might stay with me, or it might fade away as the mind moves elsewhere, but I make a mental note of the trigger and try to process it later when I have some free time.
(05-12-2014, 02:12 PM)Bring4th_Plenum Wrote: [ -> ]so when one experiences an emotion, it is like a signalling for something.

what is the next step then, do you think?

how can we dig deeper, and locate the thing that is being signalled by the emotion?

Examine how we interpret the emotional experience.

We interpret experience thru our beliefs, our broader world views, our biases & assumptions and so forth. This organizing principles of how we interpret/understand the world is called 'emotional schemes'. I think this is akin to what Jungians call 'complexes' of the personal unconscious. Same thing basically, but emotional schemes are very specifically tied into how certain emotions affect how we process information.

e.g. (hypothetical), I notice this sense of sadness --> I believe sadness is a sign of weakness --> anger seems to be more effective in resolving this type of situation; I'm more comfortable showing anger than sadness --> people just don't understand me; maybe I'm not likable; I'm always going to be alone --> maybe I am weak and not lovable.

There's a lot of meaning making here. Lots of things to look at. Lots of misunderstandings to examine. In the example, person is not comfortable being honest & not OK w/ being sad. The person learned somewhere that sadness means he/she is weak. Maybe the person associated sadness with being alone and not understood. Therefore person can come to a conclusion that he/she is alone, misunderstood, and flawed. We then have a problem.

Emotions can trigger the emotional schemes to make all sorts of assumptions about the situation & self & relationship w/ other self.

Theoretically speaking, it's been hypothesized that the brain box can only notice & process one emotion at a time. In essence we can be experiencing a complex set of contrary emotions around one situation. Yet we picked up on that one emotion. Why?

Quote:I've personally found that emotions triggered in 'real time' or in real-life interactions can sort of 'stick' for a while in consciousness, but one is not able to process those emotions because one is in the middle of talking to someone, or one is required to devote the attention to continue one's task at work. In that case, the emotion might stay with me, or it might fade away as the mind moves elsewhere, but I make a mental note of the trigger and try to process it later when I have some free time.

Yeah definitely. We can recreate emotional situations even when we're not in the middle of something. If we were to push it away and it fades, it'll just be shelved in our unconscious. We might process that when we dream but it's still there... waiting.

People have different thresholds to tolerate painful experiences. Some have a tendency to internalize emotions (keep it in), some externalize (show it), some cut-off from emotions and attempt to stay more 'rational', some get swept off by emotions. If I am prone to emotional-flooding I may get swept off with the rushing waters and so processing the situation may be difficult. I would need to find ways to deal with emotional flooding so I can attend to understanding what my emotional response is saying to me. If I am more restricted in how I experience emotions and am comfy with thinking things thru, then I would want to figure out how to take a more balanced approach bc I might miss out on what the emotional signal is trying to tell me.

Recent research showed that when people respond to their emotions (interpret them) in a positive and growth-promoting light, there is more opportunity for creative problem solving.

So how do we interpret catalyst positively?
I had a psychologist ask me what emotions I felt. After saying I've experienced a lot of pain and some pleasure, I explained to her that I did not define my feelings by categorical emotions but either as pleasure or pain. There were situations that I could not readily accept and there were those I could. The former brought pain, the other pleasure.

She just got pissed off me and asked me to describe them over and over again as sad, angry, happy, etc. because her little medical sheet told her that was the only way to answer the question. I could not answer her question with her prescribed answers honestly.

To answer your question: How about just accepting catalyst and seeing where life takes us? And by accepting, I mean following our desires as they are in accordance to our values?
(05-12-2014, 03:51 PM)Adonai One Wrote: [ -> ]I had a psychologist ask me what emotions I felt. After saying I've experienced a lot of pain and some pleasure, I explained to her that I did not define my feelings by categorical emotions but either as pleasure or pain. There were situations that I could not readily accept and there were those I could. The former brought pain, the other pleasure.

Pain and pleasure are not 'emotions' per say.
I certainly experience feelings in regards to events but I can only see them as pleasure or pain. Anger and sadness are but the same emotion to me, with sadness only lacking conviction with all else still stemming from a reaction of not preferring an experience. I can only see this as simply pain. All else being pleasure, e.g. happiness, excitement, etc. They are just subjective levels to describe pleasure and pain, are they not? In the end it's binary, you either accept or reject something.
(05-12-2014, 04:22 PM)Adonai One Wrote: [ -> ]I certainly experience feelings in regards to events but I can only see them as pleasure or pain. Anger and sadness are but the same emotion to me, with sadness only lacking conviction with all else still stemming from a reaction of not preferring an experience. I can only see this as simply pain. All else being pleasure, e.g. happiness, excitement, etc. They are just subjective levels to describe pleasure and pain, are they not? In the it's binary, you either accept or reject something.

Meaning of particular emotions may be context specific. How do you explain masochism?
The person experiencing bodily masochism simply accepts the body's rejection of physical harm.

Emotional masochism would connote the acceptance of the rejection of certain experiences so far that it would further accept a willful repeating of such experiences while potentially negating the possibility of feeling pleasure.

It is still a series of acceptances and rejections just in regards to previous biases that are enjoyed by invocation.
It is possible that this psychologist was attempting to understand your experience but it did not work out between you two.

People who are more comfortable with thinking or being rational may have a difficult time expressing their emotions. If a person is using emotions as way to understand & discover self but having challenges describing emotional experience, typically we start with learning the vocabulary of emotions (mad, sad, etc). If something is difficult to describe it could also mean that the catalyst is very emotionally charging that it's difficult to make sense of it - thus sometimes we clam up or we talk about things that we are comfy w/.

The point of processing information is that we become very proximal to the emotional experience and able to work with it. If we cut-off emotions and opt for rational or philosophical discussions, we are essentially using our defense mechanisms to keep emotions more distal (further away from us). If one were to work with emotions then we would need to become proximal to it - meaning willing to re-experience certain emotions in the moment as Plenum suggested.

Not to say rational sounding people don't experience emotions. They have better control over their emotions that allows them to choose to intellectualize their emotions than to get in touch with emotions.
I hadn't thought about emotions becoming more distal. I am very much in touch with how I feel.