State:
What state are you in right now?
Are you feeling tired yet hopeful? Vulnerable but passionate? Do you have to pee or are you hungry? Are you anxious about the future or regretting the past? Maybe you are bored or worried.
We are always shifting through different states. …
I’ve been contemplating my inner child and the emotions that arise from her lately. I hold the belief that emotions should be acknowledged, felt and processed, however, a recent encounter with a friend revealed a different perspective.
“What have you been studying lately?” he asked.
“I was just journaling about my inner child,” I replied, “and how she should be acknowledged when emotions arise from her.”
He thought for a moment and responded, “I see where you’re coming from, but I think emotions are delusions. They hold us back and are products of expectation. Depending on the extent to which our expectations are fulfilled, an emotion is felt.”
He is discrediting what makes us human, I thought. Does he not feel? I let what he said soak in and replied, “What about joy, excitement and awe?”
He said, “Those are also a product of expectation.”
I thought about this. “How our expectations are met cause us to feel certain emotions, but is this wrong? To expect? What about desire? And will?”
He responded, “I think they hold us back. They are delusions, attachments we cling to that prevent us from growing and moving on.”
As we parted ways, I said, …
Have you ever experienced that lump in your throat right before you’re going to cry? It’s not the most pleasant sensation. One day, I noticed I was feeling it despite the absence of tears or any reason to cry.
And then a little later, I noticed it was still there. And the next day and the next and still a week later. At one point in my life, I may have perhaps given no second thought to this. Or, at some point called a physician to figure out what was wrong with me.…
