There’s a saying in Scotland that if you don’t like the weather, wait twenty minutes.
When I realised also that my emotions often changed with the same kind of frequency, from dull to bright and back again, I realised also that in addition to any exercises I may do to embrace my emotion and get to the bottom of it to find it’s ‘gifts’, I didn’t either need to see the emotions as any kind of permanent negatives in themselves. Uninspired moments pass.
This is an exercise in observing - seeing the come and go of emotions as passing things.
With the awareness that I had developed of how my – and perhaps everybody’s – emotions come and go, I was able to get into the habit of thinking to myself, “Ok, so I know I’m not feeling too hot now, but because I know how my emotions work I know that in the next chunk of life that arises I will be inspired again, so there’s no permanent bother really because the mood will pass”.
And that’s not to deny the ability that we each have to control, choose, heal or deal with our turbulent emotions, either. It’s an extra element or string to your bow. I do indeed assert that we can be the masters of ALL of our emotions, and that we are the manufacturers of them. Rather, this understanding is a complement to it. What this is about is an exercise in observing, seeing the come and go of emotions as passing things – things that are not really what we are, but things that we are aware of. Our Authentic Self is not dependent upon them.
So that’s something to become or practice becoming aware of; the simple coming and going of emotions, arising and falling… We can observe them as objects, not ultimately what we are at our core, but passing like the weather.
Best wishes and happy and successful emotion mastering!
James Blacker
