What Emotions Are Really About

A long, long, time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile....

One of my favorite songs (with brilliant song writing) that popped into my head as I started this blog.  If you don't know it, do yourself a favor and check it out.....I'll leave a bit of mystery and let you find out what song it is.

You see, it was a long, long time ago when I had no idea what emotions were for.

I knew I reacted to people and situations. I was happy, sad, angry, frustrated. It was all dependent on what was happening outside of me, you know - everybody else in existence.  They were the ones responsible for my emotions and mood - not me.

I used to complain that if other people just weren't so stupid, if they used their heads a bit, didn't they know?? (Sound familiar?) 

I had expectations for people and situations. And when those people and situations didn't turn out the way I had planned, the way I had dreamed, and the way I had expected, I grew angry, frustrated, sad. 

It was because of them, not me.

But years of soul searching, attempting to understand what was going on in my life so I could make it better, led me to one fact, over and over and over again: No one is responsible for our emotions, except ourselves.

Seems crazy, right?  How can we control our emotions when it's everyone else that's the problem?

But it's only crazy because we've been taught (or rather, haven't been taught) what emotions are really about.

Emotions are there to guide to us, not control us. 

Emotions are how the Universe communicates with us.

You may be thinking, I don't believe in that hooey crap. 

And yet, whether you believe or not, there is evidence of these Universal laws at play in your own life (Law of Attraction, for example).

Each of us is unique, with our own interests, hobbies and desires.  (And thank goodness because I, for one, could never build a computer.  I cannot sit still to program and invent things.  My brain does not work that way, and I am so grateful for the people here who do love to dabble in technology and programming, since I do enjoy using it.)

That uniqueness, those dreams and desires, are what we were brought forth onto this planet to do.  The reason so many of us are so dissatisfied by life is because we have leaned so far away from what we truly dreamed about.  That discontent is deep seated and no amount of superficial success will alleviate it.

So when emotions such as anger or frustration pop up, it's the Universe's way of saying, "Hey! Not this way. What you want is the other way!"

How does the Universe communicate that we are 'on track?'

We are happy! We are joyful and life just seems to work.

It's not always easy to look at life this way.  It's way easier to get caught up in the story of why we feel this way (what someone else did or didn't do; what we expected that did or didn't happen).

But when we can take a bird's eye view and look at, "I'm really frustrated because I need more money right now" we can actually locate different possibilities at creating it.  

How can we create it? Follow the joy.

Because according to the Law of Attraction, if we attempt to create anything from that frustrated state, guess what we'll get?  Yup, more things to be frustrated about.

You may not believe me that it is that easy, and that's fine.  You don't have to.  

I would encourage you to play with this in your own life, however. 

Take an area where you are experiencing a heavier emotion (such as anger, sadness or frustration) and look at what is really going on. 

We can be frustrated when we are sick, for example, because we want to be well and do the things we want to do. 

But our frustration will not create health and when we attempt to create better health from that frustrated state, what do we get? More frustration because we are stressed that things aren't going our way, we still aren't getting better, we are tired, etc, etc.

If we look at it from the perspective that emotions are data, the data is simply that we want to feel healthy and where we are focusing is not creating that.

Maybe we are focusing on our limitations or on everything we lost.  Instead we should try asking, "Hey, Universe, I want to feel better. What can I do to change this?"

See what shows up - maybe someone mentions an acupuncturist or we read an article about a new treatment that's relevant to our condition.

Now, the key is to not buy into whatever shows up as the gospel truth that will magically fix everything.  We are on a journey on this earth and each step leads us to the next.  Oftentimes, we can't get to what we want until we do this thing first because this thing is what leads us to the next.  We would have never gotten there any other way.

But if we get frustrated that yet another thing didn't work, we are taking ourselves out of the health game, for example.  We can't control outcomes.  

We can only control ourselves: our thoughts, our feelings, and our emotions.

This why our emotions are so crucial.  They have a ton of information if we are willing to receive it.