Distinguishing between moods and emotions and learning to identify - TopicsExpress



          

Distinguishing between moods and emotions and learning to identify what you are feeling in any moment can be a helpful life skill for emotional mastery. Emotions are feelings that are stimulated by an event or a perception: I win the lotto, I am elated. I lose my job, I feel loss. I get stuck in a rainstorm - I could be elated or angry, depending on how I perceive the situation. Moods, on the other hand, are like the water the fish is swimming in: they can go undetected by you and they can significantly impact how you perceive events and conditions, and how you may act in response to them. Think about it. You are in a mood of resignation but dont know it. What you DO know is that nothing you see seems possible or worthwhile. The next day your mood shifts and you see that the day before you had a distorted view. Now you can see that the mood of resignation became the filter through which you perceived everything. One of my teachers told me that we dont have moods, moods have us ! Moods like to proclaim themselves as THE TRUTH. Moods like to persuade us towards or away from action that is contrary to their STORY OF HOW IT IS. Moods like to prompt us to say, Thats the truth of it. Thats just the way things are. (Resignation says , Life is unfair, dont bother trying, it will end up like it always has, in defeat) Moods, however, can be detected through observation. As we learn to observe our thoughts and perceptions we can learn to identify the moods we are living in. As we ask ourselves, what is the story or TRUTH right now? What do I see everywhere I look? These can be clues to the mood you are living in. Moods also predispose us towards certain actions or inaction. Resignation says dont bother acting. Ambition says each step moves us closer. Loss says, be alone and still. Joy says celebrate with others, reach out, have fun. Anger says get even! Being a powerful Observer self helps us to track and identify the moods we are in. once we identify that we are living in a mood that does not serve us, we can take action to shift it. We can betray the TRUTH that what is true in any moment is filtered through our moods and emotions. Learning to observe and identify what mood we may be living in, can also help gain mastery over them. If the identified mood is not serving our goals, dreams and desires, we can find ways to shift them through practice. It might be reaching out to a friend, going for a yoga class, putting on happy music to shift your mood. Moods like to run the show and if you have been living in a negative mood for a long time, the required effort to overcome them grows. Some people live in a mood for days, others weeks, some years. What mood are you living in and what is the story it tells as TRUE? What (in) action does it predispose you towards?
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 16:29:04 +0000

Trending Topics



Recently Viewed Topics




© 2015