Energy in motion
A few months ago, I realized something important about positive and negative emotions. My coach helped me with just one word. Actually, one image:
Encephalogram
Now imagine a movie where the hero is in the hospital and says her/his last words to her/his family and then… the curve becomes flat. Over, dead, end of the movie.
Well, now, think of this image as a roller coaster, sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down. And as long as it doesn’t excessively goes up or down, it is actually good, you’re doing well, you’re alive. On the contrary, when your encephalogram of emotions is flat or stag lining, there is something wrong, like in the movie. No emotions means you’re empty, burned out, emotionnally dead.
Whatever emotions are coming, it is not a matter of positive or negative but more importantly a matter of acceptance and feeling comfortable to embrace all kind of emotions (or not feeling too uncomfortable sometimes) and understanding what to do with it. By reflex, you don’t want to go somewhere where there is a label “negative emotions” and, funny enough, many of us don’t want to go somewhere where emotions are too positive either because you never know what’s coming next! Sounds familiar ?
“When life’s been treating you a little bit too good lately…”
“Emotion is energy in motion”. is a quote from Neale Donald Walsch, controversed author of Conversations with God. Here is what he says:
“Emotion is energy in motion. When you move energy, you create effect. If you move enough energy, you create matter. Matter is energy conglomerated. Moved around. Shoved together. If you manipulate energy long enough in a certain way, you get matter… It is the alchemy of the universe. It is the secret of all life”
I’ll let you meditate with this ;-) I personally think it’s quite powerfull. Now let’s go back to those variations of emotions that we all face on a daily basis and see where it’s coming from and what we can do about it.
How emotions are made ?
This TED Talk from Lisa Feldman Barrett (University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University) explain how emotions are actually made.
"Emotions are guesses that your brain constructs in the moment where billions of brains cells are working together and you have more control over those guesses than you might imagine that you do."
"Emotions that seem to happen to you, are actually made by you. Which means that you have more control over your emotions that you think you do. Your brain is wired so that if you change the ingredients that your brain uses to make emotion, then you can transform your emotional life. If you change your ingredients today, you're basically teaching your brain how to predict differently tomorrow."
Professor Feldman Barrett calls this "being the architect of your experience".
Those changes won’t be visible from one day to another but it is still quite powerfull to think that everything you’re doing today - the people you meet, the things you read, the movies you watch and of course the way you decide to react to every situation you face - will have an impact on how you will emotionnally function in the future.
Identify and label your emotions
Develop your emotional vocabulary by learning to identify and label your emotions. When you can name what you're feeling, it becomes easier to navigate and accept those emotions.
So let me pause now for a second and see what we have:
Roller coaster of emotions (as long as it is not excessive) is actually good. It means you’re alive;
“Emotions that seem to happen to you, are actually made by you…you are the architect of your experience”;
Putting a name on what you feel helps you accept those emotions.
What’s next? Choose what works…for you, not for the others
Whether it’s:
Expressing your emotions to someone you trust;
Journaling in order to reflect on your daily feelings and cultivate acceptance;
Joining a group that can help you process the emotions you’re feeling;
Practicing mindfulness to accept all kind of emotions;
Doing what’s best for you!
To conclude, I’ll leave you with this brilliant quote:
“Perhaps it is best to think of it like this – most of us have come to terms with the fact that we are physically a collection of atoms. We and our consciousness somehow emerge and we seem to be able to live with this illusion of our being. Maybe all we need to do is the same for how we feel, as we play out our short existence.”
