Emotions Psychology Part Two : Managing Your Emotions

Welcome to Part Two of my article: Emotions Psychology Managing Your Emotions.  We continue on without recapping on Part One...

Pressing the brake pedal of your car might be appropriate, depending on the situation. If it has become an automatic reaction when another vehicle slows or brakes or stops in front of your car it is an essentially useful reaction. Howeve, pressing the floor with your right foot when you are in the passenger seat and your partner is driving is a good example of a useless and inappropriate reaction. It is one based on fear. But knowing this does not automatically stop us from doing it.

Honking the car horn two seconds after a traffic light has turned green because that battered old van in front of you had not moved off quickly enough is an inappropriate reaction. And usually it is a reaction based on emotion, rather than a deliberately calculated action. It stems from annoyance and frustration and inner pressure, rather than a desire to remind the driver of the vehicle in front that he perhaps hasn't noticed the change from red to green.

But there are far more sinister and harmful reactions than the example mentioned above. There are the reactions of automatic anger, hate, fear, panic even - as is the following grief and remorse. It is these deep-seated reactions that cause all of us our misery and suffering. It is these reactions we must rid ourselves of if we are to ever have peace and harmony within.

In releasing emotions It is all very well to say..."I can learn to control them." But how can we learn to control? These reactions come from deep-seated complexes which are not readily examinable by the conscious, rational mind. They often come from deeply-rooted repressions. And they come up so quickly. They rush up within us, often rising so rapidly and are so strong and impelling that they overcome our awareness, causing us to lose our equanimity and balance. In the idiom, we "lose our cool."

Given the right stimulus, overwhelming rage can rise to the surface and overpower us to the point where we react, taking actions we so often later regret. Morevoer, we are seemlingly powerless against such emotions. How can we get them out of our systems? How can we do away with or, at least ameliorate them, to the point where they do not overwhelm us?

The natural tendency is to think, "If i can control the outside situation to the point that only the things that I want to happen will happen, and the things that I don't want to happen do not happen, then my troubles will be over." But is this possible? Even the President of the United States of America hasn't got that sort of control. Even a world-dictator could not have such power.

Fortunately, in Emotional Psychology we don't have to devote our lives to the impossible task of obtaining total power over our outside environments. Our kingdom lies within. It's all there inside us. It lies within the physical, emotional, mental,and spiritual planes of our being. It is inside that we can rule - if we are willing to face up to the task of clearing away the debris contained within; of disolving the crystalized, emotionally-charged thought-forms that clog the subtler levels of matter in which we live and move and have our being.

 And a task it is indeed.  We must be willing to undertake a long spiritual journey; take a long, long road to the final goal of total rule of our selves.   It will involve, along the way, the total disolution of the little self, or ego, and the discovery of our Higher Self.   It is the ultimate goal.

Most people don't give this matter of overcoming one's negative reactions much thought.   Some few think but it and dismiss it as too difficult.   They may be hoping that Bayer and Roche Intenational, or some other pharmaceutical company will invent a pill that will give them instant relief from their inner turmoil.   They'll wait a long time.   Some fewer still seek for a while and give up.   And some fewer still seek until they find a way.   But in the long run, we will all seek...and all find a way.

We must become seekers...and the sooner the better. Because if we don't seek we will never find the path. And if we don't find the path (and the pathways are infinite) we will never overcome the reactions which dominate our lives. And if we don't illuminate the reactions, the mental hang-ups and complexes which cause us so much anguish, we will never find the Peace that passeth all understanding.

IKeep smiling.

Tom.