How much our life is influenced by our emotions?
Have you noticed the difference in the way you interact with your friends, family, colleagues when you are in a good mood and in a bad mood? Have you ever caught yourself postponing for days or even months making that important phone call or writing a letter for the fear of a negative response? And probably all of us have experienced how a seemingly insignificant little thing – a sudden minor disruption of our plans – can cause a bright day go grey.
Run a simple experiment. Sit quietly, take a few gentle breaths, in and out, and think of something you would really like to achieve. Now imagine a kind wizard, wrapped in an invisible cloak coming up to you and revealing to you that this thing will actually come true, just do what you have to do. Notice how you feel (inspired? motivated?) and how your body feels (tingling? energized?). And now imagine that a sad fairy comes and says that, no matter how much you try, there is a very little chance of success. Notice the change in your mood and in your physical state.
Emotions, implicitly, shape our life to a great extant. They colour the tone of our voice, impact our actions and, in general, affect our sense of wellbeing. They arise spontaneously, powered by our subconscious mind, and it may seem that we can do little to control them. This is, however, a wrong assumption! There is much that we can do to understand our emotions, befriend them and master them. By achieving that we gain the power to shape our lives consciously, to become the pilots rather than the jets run by auto-pilot.
The first step towards this goal would be developing a greater awareness of emotions that we experience day-to-day. As it happens, very often we do not recognize what emotional states we are in (angry, anxious, overwhelmed, etc.). Becoming mindful of our emotions simply by learning to witness them in a friendly, non-judgmental way prepares our brain to the second step when we are able to ask the question “Do I want to experience this emotion or not?” This is a stage when we are able to make a choice, which would be the next step. Yes, we can actually choose what emotions we experience! We can consciously decide not to immerse ourselves in an emotion that puts us into a negative frame of mind, and opt instead for a positive emotion that invigorates mind and body and creates a sense of well-being.
I have created a simple template-calendar that can help you to monitor your emotions on a weekly basis. You can download it from my website: https://www.soultap.co.uk/downloads.
The calendar is in a Word format, and you can easily re-tailor it for your individual needs (if you need help please feel free to contact me.) All you need to do is at the end of the day (or throughout the day) put a tick (or several ticks) next to the emotions that you have experienced. If you wish, you could add a very brief note about the trigger of the emotion as well as its intensity. After a couple of weeks of this practice you will have a pretty clear idea of your prevalent emotions and their habitual triggers.
The most important condition is NOT TO BE JUDGEMENTAL. We tend to beat ourselves up for experiencing “bad” emotions, and this is a biggest trap and impediment in achieving the mastery over our emotions. So, just take it as a game. At this level of the game you score points not for succeeding in changing your emotional responses, but simply for noticing them, witnessing them non-judgementally.
Enjoy! Stay open-minded and prepare to be surprised!
And if you have questions or need support please write to me at connect@Soultap.co.uk or leave your comments to this blog.
Warm wishes,
Ludmila Gin
Ortal-Paz
Interesting topic, and of course, one which concerns every (self-aware) human being. The emotions calendar is a nice and original idea, and can be quite useful for getting in touch with yourself. Thanks!
Ludmila
Thank you for your feedback! I am currently working with a friend of mine on developing an electronic version of emotions and thoughts calendars so that it could be downloaded into mobile phones and used throughout the day. Stay connected and wishing you a lot of positive emotions in your life!