We've been taught to avoid negative emotions from a moral standpoint, that things like anger are wrong and that we shouldn't be that way. Some authority figure told us it was bad, and we held that thought in our minds. Well I have some more practical reasons for not engaging in negative emotions, things that aren't too hard to observe in your life.
Negative emotions are heavy, the more you carry around, the more drained you feel. Worrying about the future, thinking about how someone wronged you in the past, hating your job, the more you do these things, the more exhausted you become. When you engage in these thoughts, you make yourself miserable too. Pay close attention to what you're doing, what you're thinking, and especially pay close attention to how those two things make you feel. When you're thinking negatively about another person, does it lift you up or drag you down?
When you can really see what you're doing to yourself, you can start to see how you're willingly engaging in behavior that makes you suffer. At this point there's a bit of a blow to the ego because it means you've been... well... stupid. People don't want to think of themselves as stupid, so often when your own stupidity is painfully obvious, that's when you ignore it the most. Willingly making yourself suffer though, if that's not stupid I don't know what is.
Imagine someone trip and fall down, then to get revenge, they start punching the ground until they injure themselves further. That's not an intelligent thing to do, but you likely do it every day emotionally. You have one negative experince, such as someone saying something hurtful, and then you dwell on it for hours. That's you beating yourself up emotionally, pay close attention and recognize it as it's happening. Even if something hurts initially, you don't need to keep carrying it around.
It's okay that you've been stupid, don't beat yourself up about that. Society as a whole has fallen for it, but if you can recognize yourself behaving foolishly, then you have a chance to choose something else, there's an opportunity for real wisdom to occur. A wise man can see when he's behaving foolishly, it's the fool who thinks he's being wise all the time.
It's been said, you will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger. In understanding this, why would you choose to be angry? You wouldn't, but for most people negative emotions aren't conscious choices, but unconscious reactions. Breaking that cycle is simple, but because the patterns are so ingrained it is also one of the most difficult things for people to do. All it takes is awareness, start to notice the patterns, see what you are doing to yourself. Through your own thoughts, you created the weight you carry around. When you acknowledge that, you can let it go.
If you believe someone else makes you feel the way you feel, how can you change? You can't because you believe someone else is doing it to you, you're a victim. Seeing it this way creates hatred for others too, you believe they harmed you, and now you hate them. One negative thought creates another negative thought, and if you choose to hold onto hatred that's only going to lead to even more unpleasantness. Become aware, watch these things as they happen. Then you can break out of the program and start to transcend these problems.
Don't deny your fears, don't ignore them, but don't feed them either. Look at them, look at how you feel. Is that really you? Is this who you choose to be? What thrives in unconsciousness starts to disappear in the Light of Consciousness. You can release these things, and you can begin right Now.
The Galactic Free Press
No copyright, share/edit freely
Please consider donating. This will assist us in being able to put more energy into the Galactic Free Press, and being able to write more articles.
