Ecotrain QOTW: Do Our Emotions Dictate Our Lives - Or Do Our Lives Dictate Our Emotions?

Naturally our emotions dictate our lives. Behind almost every action there's at least one emotional connotation. And people cannot dish it away.

We just have to look around and observe carefully. And we can note that there's an emotional drive in each action. And we can also look at ourselves as if we were studying our personality. Every day we do things that are charged with emotions.

Even the things we don't do, there are emotional responses showed through our attitude. The most common thing in the world: A person who doesn't like his job. Although he has to do it, he complains over and over. And even if he can mask it through a smile, there are evident signs of discomfort in his behavior and also in the way his work is done.

It's just like when people cook. If they do it with love and care, the final product has great chances to be delicious.

Be aware of them

Since our emotions are like an inseparable companion, we need to know how to channel it the best way possible. And I don't entirely mean by controlling them. It's more like identifying them.

When we fail to do this, we may be succumbed by them, specially if they are charged with hurting feelings. Many people who let themselves be crushed by their emotions just don't want to learn how to deal with them. Of course, there are moments in our lives that can devastate us and we can feel pretty down. But at the end all passes. Life continues. Bad experiences can leave scars in us, but they don't have the power to diminish us unless we let them.

Every time we feel down, attributes such as depression and negativity can easily emerge. And when we going through them, we are just letting those emotions stick and shape our reality and eventually. These are very important moments because we tend to make decisions that can boost our life in different situations.

Similarly, a person who's currently going through good mood and feeling invigorated can also make decisions that can alter his life for good. So, no matter why type of emotion we are going through at any moment, they always take part in each turn we want to make.

Recognizing our mistakes

When we let our emotions dictate our lives, there's a great percentage we're going to make mistakes. And it's necessary to admit them. That way if we do somebody wrong, we understand why and then approach apology with a true sense honesty.

There's false atonement by excusing bad behavior and actions based on different elements. Even though there are factors that provoke mean reactions, we cannot always bring them up to justify any burst because our emotions belong to us. They're not an isolated entity.

It's not all bad to follow our emotions

On the other hand, certain people who let themselves be guided by emotions are more happy in some cases. They don't let emotions control them, instead they use them to know how they feel at the any moment. As I implied in the beginning of this post, "Many people don't like what they do every day." And even so they do it anyway. They complain, curse, annoy other people, but they don't change.

Their emotions are telling them- actually screaming at them - but they're not really listening. With just a moment of thinking, those people can realize that their true feelings are rising up as a lifesaving.

These important moments most of us let go by like thin powder running through our fingers. Rarely life shows us what we can do. And sometimes it tries to tell us through our emotions. Sadly, we always end up complicating things.

Start Over

There is a movie called the Beaver. It's about a man who lives a miserable life. On the surface, he appear to have everything all people want. He is married with kids, has a successful business, and is respected among all members of his society.

But he is not happy at all. He goes through life pretending that everything is fine. And all changes when he couldn't contain inside all his real emotions.

It wasn't until he could channel his angst through a puppet that he finally found peace and some self-realization. There is this important quote in the movie that probably not everyone will agree but it has certainly great impact for its realism:

We reach a point where, in order to go on, we have to wipe the slate clean. We start to see ourselves as a box that we're trapped inside and no matter how we try and escape, self help, therapy, drugs, we just sink further and further down. The only way to truly break out of the box is to get rid of it all together... I mean, you built it in the first place. If the people around you are breaking your spirit, who needs them? Your wife who pretends to love you, your son who can't even stand you. I mean, put them out of their misery. Starting over isn't crazy. Crazy is being miserable and walking around half asleep, numb, day after day after day. Crazy is pretending to be happy. Pretending that the way things are is the way they have to be for the rest of your bleeding life. All the potential, hope, all that joy, feeling, all that passion that life has sucked out of you. Reach out, grab a hold of it and snatch it back from that bloodsucking rabble.

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Emotions clearly dictate our lives. But we can learn from them and take the best decisions we can with our lives.

@edave

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