Emotional Roller Coaster Wreck

byAnOilForThat

576 followers

Updated 9 years ago

I love being happy! I hate being sad! I love being excited! I hate being angry! I love being confident! I hate being scared! I love being content! I hate being needy! So knowing how I want to feel doesn't mean I will feel it and knowing how I don't want to feel doesn't mean I won't feel it. Feelings are not dependent on what I want.

What is it that determines where my feelings will go? Usually it is an event that triggers and emotional reaction. Something happens that makes me smile and I'm happy. Another event makes me angry. Planning a holiday makes me excited. Is it really the event that triggers the emotion or something else?

A newborn baby has no emotional triggers. He cries to communicate and be heard. It's up to mum to figure out this confusing language and satisfy the need so bub will stop crying. As events take place in the child's life and they watch the reactions of the people around them, their little minds lock away all the information. Add to these subconscious observations every piece of information handed down from older siblings, parents, uncles, aunties, grandparents, teachers, classmates and everyone else the growing child comes into contact with.

All of these pieces of information are filed away in the child's subconscious waiting for a need to arise where it will be useful. Think about the people in your life. How many contradicting opinions can you recall? Imagine the child's subconscious trying to sort out what information is for keeping and what to discard.

As the child grows and gets a taste for junk food and sweets with little nutritional value. Even the healthy food available struggles to provide enough nutrition for growing children without filling their little bellies with empty calories. So with tiny deficiencies growing bigger as the child grows the subconscious becomes less efficient and a cycle begins.

Genetics and traditions come into play. Chinese whispers, perspectives and interpretations come together to make each individual different. Now when an individual responds to an event their subconscious takes all of these variables into account and quickly decides on an emotion to correspond. The resultant reaction to the same event could vary vastly from person to person.

This emotional response, created by the thoughts and beliefs the subconscious has formulated, evokes a physical response. Crying, laughing, fighting, hugging, withdrawing, running, confronting are all physical responses to an emotional response created by the way a person thinks about an event. So where is the cause? The event? The emotion? The thinking?

It is possible to train our brains to change the ingrained thoughts, beliefs and scripts we didn't consciously put there. Contrary to former belief that our brains do not regenerate, the study of neuro-plasticity has uncovered proof that we are able to 'change our minds' and heal our brains. We can choose what thinking we keep and what we discard. Of course it takes commitment and time and even courage to admit some of the toxic thinking we have acquired over the years. It helps to remember that how and what we think comes from a barrage of other people's stuff that has been organised and saved by our subconscious so it's not our fault.

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. ~Michelangelo

I say, every person has a destiny and it is their task through life to activate it. Like the sculptor, we remove the bits that do not match it. The right thoughts plus a little faith leads to your destiny. Now the events in your life can be viewed differently.

Events that activate and advance your destiny are gifts. Events that challenge or divert your attention or direction are the lessons that lead to more gifts and your destiny. So if it feels like life is an emotional roller coaster headed for a wreck, take heart. Look for the gifts and lessons in every event that move you toward your destiny. The sooner you recognise the gift, the closer you will be to your destiny.