In my recent reading, I’ve encountered this idea:
Emotions, when we notice and allow them without rejecting or clinging, tend to dissipate pretty quickly. On their own, that’s what they do. The thing that usually keeps emotional responses going is the stories we tell ourselves about them, the ways we either rush to gather supporting evidence that will justify/reinforce them or start judging ourselves harshly for having experienced them in the first place.
Either way, we’re feeding into the emotion.
Contrary to the idea of people needing to routinely “discharge” their anger, for example, there’s evidence that people who indulge in and act out their anger only tend to become angrier. Because discharging anger by acting it out – indulging in “getting angry” – doesn’t actually deal with the underlying feeling.
This idea of emotions as habits we can change the way we relate to interests me.
So, naturally, it worked its way into a song.
What you are saying here, Chriso, is very similar to what Marion Rosen observed… That when emotions came up in people and were not judged or stifled, they were processed and moved through the person in 90 seconds or less.
xo
Not judged or stifled or (alternatively) clung to, right? Interesting, Cherylo. I’m still happy to have read your comment 89 seconds ago.
🙂 Yes, she believed that the clinging to the emotions by not fully feeling them, because of judgments, old beliefs, etc., causes internalization and can affect the body/mind in unhealthy ways. When we allow ourselves to feel an emotion (energy in motion) the energy can move and we can direct the energy however we choose.
Lovely.
Why, thank you!