Emotional Gauge

Life is full of ups and downs, we can go through a lot of different things which can affect us in a number of ways. The reactions we have to life's happenings can also vary, we can show incredible resilience in the face of adversity and at the same time we can also crumble on a whim. Now reading the last few lines you may have imagined two different people one strong and one weak. However, my intention was to describe one person, being both strong and weak at different times depending on a number of variables.

What is true of the human condition is that, while we are creatures of habit, our consistency can vary due to a number of factors. Distractions, tiredness, stress, cognitive strain, mood, and much more can affect our ability to perform as necessary to deal with the challenges of life. Our perception is so easily influenced by the aforementioned factors, that it can cause us to make mountains out of molehills and also minimize the magnitude of serious situations.

What this indicates is that while objective reality is a somewhat fixed structure, our subjective perception of this objective reality is a shifting variable which is what makes all the difference in how we interact with life's challenges.

The reality of the life we live in, is that when things happen to us, they can not "unhappen". The only thing we have control of is how we react to these happenings, if we define them or let them define us.

Unhappen

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we should disconnect from our emotions and thoughts completely to deal with life situations. However, these mechanisms serve a purpose, and that is to let us know our current status. This then gives us the ability to make adjustments to gravitate to what we desire and avoid what we dont. Unfortunately we sometimes tend to fixate of the situational context to unhealthy degrees, rather than take these signals as a direction to implement change.

Example:

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Situation:
We are sitting to close to the bonfire, we have the sensation of being uncomfortably hot and being burned.

Healthy Reaction
We acknowledge the indicators, asses the situation. We move away from the flames to a position which is warm but no longer causing pain. We are comfortable and in a place we want to be.

Unhealthy Reaction
We acknowledge the indicators, asses the situation. We feel the pain, complain about the pain, wonder why we got in this position, wish we would not have chosen to be here, etc. but we do not move away from the flame. We continue to suffer the pain, be uncomfortable and in a place we dont want to be.

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Bonfire

This example attempts to create an analogy which brings the concept of physical pain and our instinctive reaction to it, then compare it with our psychological pain, which in contrast we tend to endure well beyond what would be considered reasonable.

We will all have moments in time where we will stumble and fall. It's ok to be hurt, to have a good cry, to sit there and take it all in, assess how you got there, how to stop it from happening again and what to do from where you are. However, we cannot stay there forever, we can not unpack and set up camp in misery or also in the feeling of elation.

By design these thoughts and feelings are fleeting, they should pass within a given amount of time, but it is us, the human condition, which drives us to hold onto these emotions for longer than is necessary. It is these kinds of action which can facilitate, influence and cause Mania, depression, and various other psychological constructs within ourselves... And doing so can have considerable adverse effects on the human psyche.

It is a very simple understanding, too much of anything is not good for us, this is true of a number of things. Taking too many drugs can cause an overdose, illegal or prescription. Drinking too much water can kill people, the condition is called hyponatremia. The same can be said about thoughts feelings and emotions... too much of anything is not good for you.

Too Much Of Anything Is Poison

We are often conditioned to think that we have very little control in our lives, a state of learned helplessness if you will. While this may be true of external factors, it does not apply to elements of ourselves. We can choose to shift our mindsets, how we perceive things, how we react to things, and how long we choose to hold on to the thoughts, feelings and emotions, all of which can be detrimental to us when we interact with them for far too long.

We are the Driving Force behind our emotions, our thoughts, our feelings. We can contaminate the essence of who we are with negativity until it depresses us, we can also inject copious amounts of positivity until we reach manic States, and everything in between.

Time To Break Free

While we may have been conditioned to believe much of this is Automated and beyond our control, we are far more capable than we have been led to believe. We CAN lift ourselves up if we get too low we CAN bring ourselves down if we get too high. It is a matter of us being aware of the power we hold within ourselves, believing we are capable of change in our lives, and applying the changes necessary to bring us closer to a state of homeostasis and equilibrium, to shift to a greater state of being fro ourselves.

Within each and every single one of us lies the ability to make ourselves feel better or worse in many aspects of our lives, and It is in this sense we are both the poison and the remedy to our lives... so the question is, which will you be for yourself now that you are aware...?

The Choice Is Yours