Emotions--Do They Get in the Way or Help?

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Ever wonder why you make the decisions you do? Do you ever find yourself making the similar choices over again, even if you weren’t happy with the result the last time?

It’s possible that you are being driven by underlying emotions, or feelings you have buried alive.

Maybe you were hurt by a blond man but desired his love. You find yourself disregarding any brown-haired male who seeks your attention, determined to make a blond man fall for you. Maybe you had a rough childhood and so you’re afraid of repeating the same mistakes your parents made that you avoid commitment, or maybe you have kids in an effort to right your upbringing.

You can even get yourself “locked into a rut” because you FEAR the unknown. You may not even know why. 

Most of us know the expression “you marry your father”.  If you look at your husband closely you may find that to be the case.  Why is that?  According to one source, there are a few reasons. The first one mentioned being familiarity.  There is a comfort that comes with feeling we understand someone, or a situation.  Really, this factor can apply to a lot of things in life, not just the mate we choose.

In my novel Life Sentence, Jessica is love with Bryan. Why? Is it the money he has, the family legacy and prestige, the car he drives, the mansion he lives in? No, she is in love with him because of a role he played at pivotal point in her life. He was there for her when she lost her parents as a teenager--a tragic turn of events for sure.  But it was due to this, to her being vulnerable, that these thoughts and feelings turned transformed into emotions. Emotions have the power of action. It was due to these “buried feelings” that the passing years didn’t taint her view of him.  These deep-rooted feelings and emotions can also leave us prey to be used and abused.

This leads us to another point--the importance of having emotional awareness.  When we truly, and honestly, evaluate ourselves, we can bring our lives into balance.  Then instead of emotions hindering us, they will aid us to make the right decisions.

~~~
Resources:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/02/11/lw.programmed.to.marry.parents/
http://www.helpguide.org/toolkit/developing_emotional_awareness.htm

Comments

  1. CLCSeptember 3, 2013 at 2:07 AM

    As you point out, emotions are too often driven by thoughts and meanings we are unconscious of. This creates a leaf-in-the-wind type of existence,one where we are literally a pawn to our own lack of awareness. Their major use as I see it is as a signpost that reads: Start digging here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carolyn ArnoldOctober 5, 2013 at 6:00 PM

      Absolutely. It's so important that we guide our thinking process so it's targeted in the direction we want to go. One encouraging fact is that one negative is not going to ruin all the positive. I loved the movie, The Secret.

      Thank you for your comment, Christina.

      Delete

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