Negativity is a self perpetuating habit that we all suffer from. It gets inside us and if unchecked, finds new outlets to wreak havoc. We avoid negativity by turning to our interests, but what happens if the force of the negativity outweighs the strength of resolve? More importantly, how can we remove the leftover lethargy from our desire to contribute?
Analysing judgement through purely intellectual means removes input from the emotional self, which brings the individual full circle. Determining via intellectual process how to rectify an issue caused by emotion will not bring the resolution required and in fact, creates the closed loop that many operate under.
Never stop giving us chances to learn.
Lifelong learning increases our knowledge. Increasing our knowledge gives our emotional selves the ability to have a wider scope from which to think things through. For example, knowing how to play the game of bar billiards is very different from playing on a pool table. While we may be accurate and precise within a small environment, having a larger playing field means having to find the potential for accurate aim over longer distances - practice gives us the opportunity to refine an existing skill. Similarly, connections to new knowledge help us extend and broaden perspective.
We will find the things that help us heal.
Pursuing interest is indicative of the knowledge we seek. In this instance, what we pursue correlates to the emotional journey of an individual and reflects the knowledge we need to gain to move forward. The stresses (if any) that are carried over from childhood or current life can be mitigated by exploring our activity.
In truth we have been disengaged from gratitude and its processes for a variety of reasons - examples of how this can manifest are that it could be that we haven't liked the thanks that is felt immediately following the action because it has no monetary reward, and it could be that we don't constantly recognise that we are all in the process of becoming or how to support it further.
Initial feelings of gratitude express themselves as an outpouring of love for the change that has taken place, followed by a sense of loss or emptiness. In this space between change, it's easy to lose motivation as the reality of our visions in gratitude can seem an insurmountable burden when moving as a physical being. We look for other ways to replenish the empty space. Whatever it is we find interest in, whether to alleviate boredom or create inspiration, it represents an emotional need.
Knowing what this need stems from can help individuals break out of old coping habits to find better choices that heal, and aid in progress. Acceptance of the choices we make or have made is critical as our emotional selves bring the truth forward as instances that require some decision making. Chastising ourselves for our choices limits perspective and disables growth. For example, if individuals consider their interests weak by society's standard, they will evaluate themselves harshly and choose a stronger societal interest which may not yet reward the individual with the same amount of pleasure, thus to fit in and be seen as more, deny themselves full replenishment. Some outcomes of denial that are regularly observed are:
- total inactivity/lack of energy/lack of interest;
- hatred for the task and self;
- inability to focus;
- loss of esteem or worth;
- stringent standards of perfection in others;
- letting go of the goal.
In order to fully understand where our interests lie, a big picture overview is necessary as prevailing interest unfolds the process towards clarity and organic transformation. An example of this would be an interest in the news. The emotional self analyses and categorises the world according to the information presented (i.e. takes on the perspective of the author which favours a bias, either known or unknown) and develops a skill that will come in useful as life progresses irrespective of whether the individual is aware of the significance of this learning.
Learning anything new gives the individual a skill which is absorbed by the emotional self providing a new source of communication for the individual. New communication skills add to an individual's toolset to expand the way in which they respond to stimuli, both internally and externally.
The individual's emotional self will feel nurtured and a trust bond between the egoic mind and the physical self grows stronger. Knowledge has the gracious ability to develop a broader perspective from which a deeper maturity can give the emotional self the opportunity to adopt more intuitive habits.
Adult education/regular talks on life
Making free education available or conducting regular talks brings about knowledge that empowers, allowing those who know to spread their orientation. For example, a novice in yoga may find that their difficulty in attaining asana correlates to an emotional blockage but with some self nurturing that acknowledges the difficulty, is able to move forward with their practice. The wisdom received from the activity strengthens the emotional self that can now provide a calmer attitude towards stimuli. Sharing the transformation experience progressively leads others to experience the same.
To help spread information that helps us heal - compassion drives us to share peaceably what we know with the understanding of how it will positively affect others for the long term. The trickle of information passes from individual to individual, growing and developing in multiple ways as each one of us interprets the original meaning as we understand it through a localised perspective (i.e. the ontology and epistemology of an individual).
People are prone to forgetfulness in how far they've come, although self appreciation for good deeds creates an identity that persists when ego is wounded and lashing out. If an individual's emotional journey is a difficult and/or long one, motivation to perform dries up when faced with the obstacle of doing. Interest and information gathering gives us a stable platform for the emotional self to hold on to while ego sets about on imaginary destruction. In the course of learning new skills, we learn to adopt new behaviours naturally. This new perspective presents learning as an holistic approach rather than as a decompartmentalised objective.
To get over lack - our current operating system - the emotional self needs a respectful space to honour its skills (skills, also known as its mission, or objective, or true calling in life). Not only in the physical world, but within the body. Self nurture through gratitude - the emotion inspired by thanks - acknowledges an individuals self-contribution that fortifies esteem and results in an identity that cannot be compromised by society. In other words, criticism can be taken without personal injury while the individual identifies the value of the received feedback. When our minds are not engaged in defensive activity the emotional self has the freedom to set things up progressively and positively. Unbound from old structures of communication that were formed at an earlier stage in life, the individual finds contentment in self that leads to unlocking true potential. Acknowledging our worth and unique value within its niche reduces the emotional quotient given to negativity.
Which draws us back to self-alignment. When we know what we are for, we instinctively use our time to nurture those skills, raising our own consciousness - our emotional selves - to the point where we are our most adaptable and flexible selves and find handling situations an easier process.
Moving forward
In an Utopian world, empathy or compassion is the governing standard. While we are not there as a world yet, the structure of empathy remains valid. The ability to empathise with the self gives us the responsiveness to release serotonin. Serotonin modulates our behaviour positively and gives us the creative space to find the way forward.
Positively correlating towards behaviour change tempers the initial violence of response and increases our self preservation quotient over our self sabotaging instinct which is commanded by our flight or fight ancient brain. Connecting new behaviour and new emotion to this survival technique extends the growth of our understanding to bring in the new.
Conscious nurturing of our emotional self can induce longer bursts of creativity and inspiration that lead to more and more rewarding outcomes. The more we can know to be true, the more we live the experience. The passions we pursue always show us the truth of who we are at heart, and who we have been. Knowledge supported by ensuing understanding trains the emotional self to stay focused on the objective rather than engage in free judgement that distorts perspective and halts progress. We have lived knowing a lack in self empathy, manifesting over the eras into what we see today happening around the world.
Each generation brings its own skill set developed as a product of understanding from the last. Each level of understanding we reach aids in the support of younger generations who can then begin to make their own connections to the world as they know it. By adopting a lifelong learning perspective the gap between the truth as it was and the truth as it is diminishes. Without fighting to reject new knowledge, the emotional self can contemplate the wisdom of the new and find ways to add to it by gaining control of lower survivalist tendencies to refocus the energy from an healthy seratonin-laden perspective.
