Setting out on a path to self knowledge by Manuj Khera

" Scientists used to think that emotions affected a person's rationality. However, we know today that intelligence not only comprises intellectual capicity but also the ability to deal with feelings in an appropriate way."

Dealing correctly with emotions

Time and again, people find themselves in situations in which the are overwhelmed or feel completely helpless. Does this sound familiar to you? But there are ways to develop your ability to keep your emotions under control in such situations. This is the main goal of many forms of psychotherapy. People who have gained some distance from their feelings - those who can detect the nuances of their own feelings and the feelings of other people - are generally more composed and can react appropriately to even the most difficult of situations. On the other hand, people who are always overwhelmed by their emotions become totally helpless when it comes to dealing with changing feelings. Such people generally also have difficulty in dealing with other people. This creats stress and anxity and in the long run, can literally make them ill.

Maintaining mental health and emotional composure is not simply a matter of perciving your own emotions, but also invlves the realisation that feelings can be controlled. Rage and fear can be pacifie and no-one has to suffer grief passively.

Gut Feelings

In this hectic day and age, many of us have lost a close connection with our intution, and we no longer trust its messages. But the other way of describing intitution is the term 'gut feeling'. When you act on a gut feeling, it means your emotions are making a decision about something or a particular course of action. So when you feel that encouraging feeling in the centre of your body, don't ignore it. Tke it seriously, for it could be an important signal.

The gut feeling can be described as a 'somatic warning sign'. When you get a gut feeling, it is a sign that the limbic system - the part of the brain concerned with the basic emotions, hunger and sex - is transferring an alarm signal from body to the brain's thought centre. The subtle interplay of body and mind shows that important decisions cannot be made solely with brain alone - that is, simply by making use of intellect. Our gut feelings must also agree with what we are doing. So make good use of the potential offered by your emotions! They can enrich your life in surprising ways.

 

The brain has established a very fine tuning between the intellect and the emotions. However, this complex relationship can be easily disrupted. We can see this if we consider the case of patients who have to undergobrain surgery. A neurologist describe the case of a patient he examned after the man had undergone an operation to remove a brain tumour. In terms of intellectual capacity, this man was unchanged following the operation - his memory and logical thinking functioned perfectly. But the surgery had completely altered his personality. When the surgons removed the tumour from just behind his forehead, the man seemed to lose all his emotions as well. After the operation, this caused him to find everything that happened in his life to be equally without meaning. He could not react to news that would narmally produce an emotional response. Moreover, he was no longer in a position to make decisions and could therefore not function effectively at work, as he was unable to tell the difference between matters requiring immidiate decisions and those things that could wait. He gave the impression that he had not only lost touch with his feelings but had also lost contact with his inner advisor. In many ways, the man had become as helpless as a child.