Sometimes the emotional experience of living can be overwhelming. We are emotional beings. We store our emotional experiences in our memories and can quickly draw from these emotional memories when something triggers an association from our past. Our limbic system is always on duty scanning the environment for perceived threats to our well-being. The threats are not always threats to our life and limb but often times are something more subtle which may threaten our sense of self, our security, or even a belief which we hold onto. These threats are all significant to our limbic system and a physiological reaction is initiated to combat the perceived threat. These subtle threats can come in many forms such as a raised voice by a partner, an uncomfortable question regarding a belief, a critical remark by a coworker, or a pronouncement of impending change to our personal or professional lives. On our journey of self-actualization, learning to recognize these emotional reactions to the world, and mindfully evaluate our impulsive reactions to them is an essential step in our growth. There are many pathways which we may errantly follow during an emotional reaction to the world. The goal is certainly not to extinguish the emotion all together. Our emotions provide us with rich and essential information regarding our connection to the environment we live in. True emotional maturity requires a smooth blending of our “feeling” experience and our mindful understanding of the world and ourselves. Our understanding of our biological, and sociological heritage can become an important partner in helping us make sense of our emotional memories. These memories contain a storehouse of associations and memories our limbic systems has safely held onto to help us avoid unnecessary pain and suffering. Our rational brain can help in sorting out emotional reactions and help us identify the true emergencies from the false alarms caused by our own faulty programming. It is not a perfect system. It is our challenge to take advantage of the information our emotions provide so we can learn more about ourselves, and channel them more effectively to our advantage. All our emotions are useful. It is in the processing of these emotional reactions which can lead us to a more constructive and peaceful life or a life filled with chaos and distress. TYaGi =7
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 03:23:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015