Filed Under (Emotions, Life) by Nick on 12-11-2007
Disrupted Serenity
There you are, kayaking down a beautiful river on a cool refreshing morning. Holding the oars out of the water, you gently coast with the natural flow of the river. As you listen to the peaceful sounds of nature and take in as much of it’s beauty along the river banks, you can’t help but wish every day was like this. No concrete. No traffic. No noise. No stress.
You close your eyes for a few seconds to focus on the smell, sounds, and the feeling of the wind caressing your cheeks. Your moment in serenity is violently disrupted as the kayak hits a rock, and another, and another. Until you find yourself in the middle of raging rapids.
Life like water offers you many peaceful moments of serenity. Unfortunately, it can also catch you off guard, forcing you into a fight for survival. You can’t control life any better than the river. Fortunately, you are in control of your responses and reactions to the events that hit you. You usually have two choices when going through the rapids:
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Filed Under (Emotions) by Nick on 02-10-2007
Since writing the article 9 Primary Emotions We Respond To, I’ve been pondering what emotions Adam and Eve experienced before they were kicked out of the garden? It’s sometimes difficult to fully understand something without knowing the opposite as well.
For example, how well do you know happiness without also knowing sadness? Having first hand experience of both emotions allows me to better understand which one I’m experiencing in the moment. Some refer to this as the Yin-Yang philosophy.
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Filed Under (Emotions) by Nick on 29-09-2007
Emotional Crowbar
Earlier, I outlined the 9 Primary Emotions We Respond To, which many people have no problems with. Yet, there are many others that are very skilled at suppressing their emotions and have locked them away in a closet. I know my closet was dead-bolted earlier this year.
I was like a boulder thinking that I was moving forward. Instead, life was flowing all around me like a river moving in the opposite direction, where I was fighting an up-stream battle. As a boulder, I preferred to be in a cluster with other boulders as long as we didn’t touch.
Oh, how I wish someone came along earlier in my life with an emotional crowbar, to pry open the door to my closet. The emotional crowbar is fairly simple but it has a very steep requirement. Before you can effectively use one (yeah, yeah, I’ll get to what it is in a minute), you’ll need to gain a solid trust with the person. It may be a bit tougher if that person is yourself. I’ll save that discussion for another article.
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Filed Under (Emotions) by Nick on 28-09-2007
Humanity was blessed with the ability to feel emotions, although we may feel at times that it’s a curse as well. In every moment, we experience emotions and we’re faced with choices on how we respond to our emotions. For example, we can attempt to suppress them, be ruled by them, allow them to guide us, or just sit and wait them out.
Regardless of how we respond, we all have emotions and the ability to recognize them. If you’re like me, I grew up suppressing my emotions to a point where I no longer could identify them. Eventually, I distanced myself from emotional connections with others, became guarded by negativity, frustration, and anger. Basically, I stopped seeing people and I was going through life with a very short fuse.
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