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 | "WEEDING THE GARDEN" | |
| It is not my intention to give emotions a bad press. Emotional thinking has has a validity of equal import as intellectual thinking. It is of prime importance to know which one you are using at any given time. The intellect deals with facts; using the tools of logic. Emotions are feelings. When faced with a problem, people are wont to state that there MUST be an answer. Why must there be? It is childish to insist that something must be, just because we want it to be. That is wishful thinking. At times, the problem may have an acceptable answer, and people say that they had a feeling that there would be. In fact, what happened was that their hopes happened to coincide with reality. Emotion will provide motivation to tackle a problem without providing a solution. Emotion clouds judgement. |
| When we go looking for answers, we are actually requiring an solution that is acceptable to us. Answers are not the same as solutions. There are times when the answer is, "No", and the solution is to accept it. Emotion is a two-sided coin. The negative emotions - anger, anxiety, etc. - release stress hormones that cause damage to the immune system. Positive emotions - joy, kindness, optimism, etc. - effect us in beneficial ways by stimulating the release of hormones that bring about muscle relaxation and heightened physical and mental activity. It is crucial to our well-being that we decide whether our lives are controlled by emotions that are triggered by external stimuli, or we choose to manage our emotions according to the dictates of intellect. Whenever we tell another person that they have made us angry, sad, upset ... we are declaring that we have handed them control of our minds. They have triggered a program that already resides within you as part of your personal myth. Example: 'Injustice always fills me with anger." Why? Injustice exists, Just as do rain, blowflies, inconsiderate neighbours, and the stars in the universe. Do these 'make' you angry? If the answer is, Yes, then you may be needing adult supervision in managing your daily affairs. |
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YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE WAY OF THE WORLD, EXCEPT BY BEING A LIVING EXAMPLE OF YOUR BELIEFS. |
| Once upon a time, I met up with a family of four who were stranded up-country due to the mechanical breakdown of their mobile home. In an act of altruism, I took my set of engineering tools to carry out the repairs that they were unable to do for themselves. Long after sunset, the job was almost finished, apart from a couple of hoses that needed to be recoupled. I was so tired that I was thinking in circles, so, promising to return the next day, I left my tools there and walked home across the fields. Came the morning and I retraced my steps only to find that ... Yep, you guessed it. The mobile home, along with my prized tools, had long gone. Bummer. Later, while lunching with a friend, I gave vent to what I considered to be my righteous indignation. I was in full throttle when he interrupted me. "Stop! You have given them the tools, but why give them the energy as well? Give up suffering, it sure isn't helping your digestion. You should know that you never give the loan of anything that you are not prepared to either sell or give away." Bang! Another personal myth exploded. The one that said that people will respond to me in the manner in which I treat them. In retrospect I saw that there were actions I could have taken to prevent the theft of my prized possessions. What I should not have done was to have drawn a conclusion from an assumption based on a personal myth that was in its turn, founded upon wishful thinking about reality. We all have mythic structures that require close examination to root out the faulty logic before they bring us undone. |