LIFE IN YOUR FEELINGS Pt. 1

 We’ve all likely heard the phrase, “You’re all in your feelings”

Question; Are you living life, through your emotions?

Anytime something happens that causes an emotion within you, does it send you off the rails? Tumbling down into the prison of the moment.

In other words, is life perceived/viewed through what you feel? If so, you might be living life in your feelings.

You’re not alone. Unfortunately, from time to time, I too, live this way.

Whether through something that I feel independently or because of someone else’s emotional storm. Either way I’m caught up in a whirlwind just the same.

Let me share with you something that I found out.

It’s okay to have an emotional abortion when this happens. Everything we feel, we don’t have to give life to it. We can abort.

We have been given The Right to Choose!

Proverb says, “Life and Death are in the power of the (Your) tongue”

Allow me to explain a bit further. As human beings we are all born with emotions, they are innate. Which is to say, males can be just as emotional as females. No one has the market cornered on being in your feelings. But Choice is our inalienable right.

To better understand what happens, I think it is important for us to understand the dynamic that exists between feelings and emotions.

Feelings and Emotions are often used synonymously, but they are not interchangeable. However, they are Symbiotic.

As I said earlier, emotions are innate. But we can choose our feelings.

Feelings can come from an Emotional experience or from a Physical experience.

Feelings that come from Physical experiences like pain, illness, and injury are unavoidable. Those are reflexes, built in to keep us safe.

But Feelings from Emotional experiences can be taught to be controlled. We CAN control our temper when we get angry.

Emotions are felt or expressed through feelings, but they don’t have free reign.

Feelings are experienced consciously, while emotions can be conscious or subconscious.

Which is to say you can’t necessarily control emotions, but you can control your feelings about them.

It is possible for an emotion to come and pass, if you don’t fester on a feeling. Your feelings can be your failings if you choose to replay that emotion over and over again. With each replay it gets stronger and more in control over you. You will become what you Feel!

Emotions can impact our behavior, when we Choose to FEEL them.

There’s a whole range of feelings that extend well beyond the few basic emotions that we all experience.

All feelings have one thing in common: they are energized by a reaction to an emotion. They become more powerful when emotionalized. We’ve got to stop empowering Bad Feelings!

A feeling is an expression of an emotional experience or a physical sensation. They are our learned reactions to an emotional trigger and determine whether we are happy or sad, content or frustrated, and so on. Feelings are the response to an emotion.

That’s the purpose of feelings—to be more specific in articulating what you’re experiencing.

Here is what are considered to be our 8 basic or primary emotions:

1.    Anger

2.    Sadness

3.    Fear

4.    Joy

5.    Interest

6.    Surprise

7.    Disgust

8.    Shame

Yet, in the English language reports show that we have some 30,000 words and counting, used to express some of the feelings that we have.

Feeling is perception through connection. You only Feel something when you connect to it.

So, If you don’t connect to an emotion, you won’t Feel it.

You can’t choose your emotions, but you can choose your feelings about an emotion.

Take for example the emotion of Joy. You could express it through the feelings of excitement, enjoyment, happiness, fondness, reflection, relief, contentment, calmness, perplexity or numerous other responses.

That’s what’s key to remember here. A feeling is but a response to an emotion. We get to choose how we respond, or IF we respond.

Here’s a great response that I try to use when an emotion comes up.

Compartmentalization.

First, I separate my positive / good feelings from my negative / bad feelings about an emotion that came up.

Positive feelings are the ones that promote peace, growth, and wellness.

Negative feelings are the ones that are toxic, problematic, and breed contempt and frustration.

Once I’ve determined which is which, I’m ready to move forward.

Next, I resort to trying to think about my good positive feelings or responses to that emotion that I felt.

Look for the Good. Find the Good. Empower the Good!

Lastly, once I’ve meditated on those good responses for a while, I then begin to speak them into action in my life.

That’s how I control the emotion instead of letting it control me.

I’ve learned what I meditate on, I will act on.

What we Meditate on, is what we will Manifest.

“Always remember to lock your thoughts on things that are honest, pure, right, lovely, and noteworthy. Keep putting those things into practice” – Paul.

There’s more to come on this, next time.

Until then, Choose Ye This Day.

God Bless.

This is a Thompson Truth