Comments on: Negative Emotions – How Would You Define Them?

By: Sunday Reading 26 August 2007

Sunday Reading 26 August 2007 — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:24:49 +0000

[...] them in our ‘real’ lives. After all, that’s why they’re called negative. In Negative Emotions – How Would You Define Them? Lyman Reed asks how we define negative [...]

By: Lyman Reed

Lyman Reed — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:37:54 +0000

That’s what’s working best for me as well, Rick… using them rather than trying to kill them off. I guess there is a point when they would become what I would call “negative” – when they move over that line and start to doing the controlling themselves (as in hurricane rocking that sailboat).

By: Rick Cockrum

Rick Cockrum — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:48:15 +0000

I went through a looonnnggg period of avoiding emotional pain. It was quite a breakthrough when I finally got mostly over it. Now I tend to look at emotions as a feedback mechanism, kind of like you describe in your sailboat analogy.

By: Lyman Reed

Lyman Reed — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 12:49:29 +0000

Thanks, Aaron! I remember reading somewhere that it’s like a sailboat in the water – our conscious, rational mind is like the sailor, and our emotions are like the wind in the sails. If the sailor lets go of the sails… well, that boat is going to have some problems! But without the wind, it will go nowhere.

By: Aaron M. Potts

Aaron M. Potts — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:56:53 +0000

Lyman,

Great post! People have such a tendency to feel defined either by our emotions or by the actions that we end up taking as a result of our emotions. In all actuality, our conscious decision about how to handle those emotions is the ONLY thing that matters.

Emotions themselves are powerless, yet their impact on us can be ALL powerful – it’s up to us!