One of my earliest childhood memories is of crying myself to sleep. The reason is long lost in the mists of time, but the melancholy of that moment has remained. And while from a perspective far removed from that day it seems sad that it would be my earliest memory, I have come to see it as one of the fine but unbreakable threads that weaves through the lives of all mankind.
We are feeling beings. We all experience joy, sorrow and every conceivable nuance in between. Some of our experiences are gut wrenchingly strong—iprnconsolable grief, desperate fear, boiling anger, hysteria and even the emotion that triggers manic laughter can be incredibly powerful. Some have a softer touch—contentment, melancholy, satisfaction, regret, serenity.
Even bliss, to me has a softness, almost a malleable quality that gives it the ability to mould itself around circumstance. But is bliss an emotion or a state of being? A deep question for another day, I think. Today I am exploring the thought that our emotions are what make us human and form the invisible threads that blend our very disparate lives into commonality. Whatever our lives look like, most of us experience at some level or other the same emotions. Perhaps our first breath gives us a fright and that’s why we cry. Perhaps our last, no matter how laboured it seems to onlookers, gives us the peace we have been seeking all our lives.
So emotions are a big part of the human experience. A burning desire can turn us into a zealot, while the same desire clothed in softer hues can accomplish great things without irrationality or destruction.
At some level we can control our emotions. What we say can have a big effect on them. Our patterns of thinking can deepen the possibility that we will follow one emotion downward or upward. Being hopeful and hopeless are the same emotion, but pointing different ways. We need to explore where our emotions take us and how powerful they are. We can find out if there is a way to head them off at the pass if they are taking us down a dangerous path.
I’ve heard that it’s proven that if you smile and look happy, whether you feel like it or not, you will be happier. This surely means that actions can be a powerful precursor of emotional change. So when we can feel our emotions slipping into negative territory we should take great care to create actions that will steer us a different way. It seems unlikely that a physical action could influence an emotion, but it’s such a powerful concept that we could all gain by exploring its possibilities.
Now when I am thinking negatively, I don’t try to change that thought any more. I look for an action that I can take which will make me feel the way I want to feel.