Rethinking Emotions.

So long as I can remember, emotions have been categoritzed as good or bad; POSITIVE emotions, or NEGATIVE emotions. Ones we want and crave and others we try to push away. This lines up well with the underlying problem with the human condition: Our tendency to judge things constantly and to often act irrationally; to obsess about what we crave and shrink from what we dislike puts us into an ongoing roller coaster of life's experiences. It also wastes a huge amount of our precious time and energy.

Most of us grew up in a world defined by dualities: Male and female; dark and light; right and wrong; happy-sad and so on. It is through the LENES of these emotions that we perceive what we believe is our reality. And, while we automatically label our emotions as one thing or another, if we can just SEE them, in the moment, without habitual judgement, we may acquire greater wisdom and equanimity in our lives. Try it: Just let yourself explore the emotion of the moment: What do you feel?Where your body? What is the sensation? Does it move? Grow? Shrink? Is there something in your life right now that is triggering that emotion? Note it: Then return to your exploration...Has the experience in your body changed? Make a note about what you have noticed.

The goal here is to experience how emotions and feelings are fluid - when we pay attention to them, they change. Labeling and then judging and emotion as good or bad fossilizes the emotion.