We
have covered our thoughts and we have touched upon ego. This month
we look at emotions. Emotions control most peoples lives. They
are an inexplicable force that the majority of us have to deal
with on a daily basis.
Think
of your emotions in terms of energy currents. Imagine an energy
field around you which changes shape, colour and texture as your
emotions change. In spiritual terms this is called your astral
body. Some people call this your emotional body or energy field.
Generally,
your emotions serve your personality or your ego. If you wish
to achieve a measure of personal development you must learn to
master your emotions and not be ruled by them. This personal development
is one of the first steps on the spiritual path of initiation
and is also known as spiritually evolving. The goal of our personal
development is to exercise control of our emotions. Energetically
this is like calming the stormy sea and symbolically, emotions
are represented by water.
This
doesn't mean that we do not 'feel' or that we should 'shut off'
as many people do, on the contrary the only way to master your
emotions is to get closer to them and actually find out what you
really are feeling.
Our
emotional needs are often manifested in physical form. A simple
example would be; eating, many people eat too many sweets. Sweets
are often used as a reward by parents or eaten at celebrations
and may be associated with happiness. People who are not happy
have a subconscious craving to eat sweets. Emotions control this
behaviour.
Other
ways in which emotions dominate are numerous. You may seek to
satisfy desire in many ways, food, money and sex are common ways
to do this. Your subconscious emotional needs dominate and cause
behaviour which is not 'good' for you.
We
measure 'good' from a reference point of what you, the soul behind
your ego, thoughts and personality wants. Through the veil of
emotion and ego, a clear path is often needed before your true
self is discovered.
The
way to still the waters is to
1.
Find out what you are thinking.
2. Respond, rather than react.
Reacting
means you are usually expressing a negative emotion such as anger
and jealousy. Please notice how I said expressing. If we respond
rather than react we will still feel the emotion. We do not however
have to express it in a negative fashion. This two step process
is simple, but hard to put into practice, the heat of the moment
often providing a difficult training ground.
A
common way to overcome this difficulty is to work backwards. Start
with the moments that cause you to react. Look at
incidents that cause you to get emotional, situations where people
'push your buttons'. Anger and Jealousy are easy places to start.
Look
for the message about yourself, don't just react.
Your
emotions originate from thoughts. Unravel the thread. Find the
thought pattern behind the emotion. All negative emotions start
with a fear.
Take
jealousy for instance. This is based on the fear of losing your
partner. It also has it's origins from the incorrect assumption
that you posses your partner. This shows up as issues of self
worth and it means that you are comparing yourself to another
person and judging yourself as less.
Envy
is another negative emotion and again the origin is fear. The
focus with envy is on what we are lacking. What
you are really thinking is "The
other person has what I want" This is based on one of two
ideas;
There
is not enough for everyone and I might be inadequate
or
I
am not happy with myself or my situation.
This
manifests with you launching an attack or belittling the person
or object of your envy. Statements such as "I
didn't want that anyway" "That's
no good because..." mean you
are focusing on what you don't have.
Change
your thoughts, focus instead on what you do have.
Once
you are aware of the mechanics which come into play when your
negative emotions are aroused, you have come a long way. What
is required to finish the task at hand is a willingness to confront
yourself. Remember, when emotions are raised in YOU, that is the
signal for you to look inside. A
common trap along the way is failure to look at yourself and instead
look to the other person involved. This means you are not taking
responsibility for your self. You need to shift the focus back
onto you.
Finding
and facing your fears is not always easy. All
you need is light. Once you illuminate your fears to yourself,
they quickly dissolve along with the accompanying emotion.
