Do you run your emotions or do your emotions run you?

It’s a simple question that is loaded with thought-provoking, inner exploration. One that really makes us sit back and think about what really is steering course in the direction our lives are headed. Are you on track towards a collision or are you on sailing on smooth waters? are the questions you need to ask yourself.

Emotions play a major role in shaping the paths in life we take. Therefore it is crucial to be in a place of mind where we can be confident that we are letting our clear intuitive processes have the controls, rather than allowing our emotions to run the show.

Don’t get me wrong emotions are a good thing, they give us the ups and downs on the road of life. To experience joy, grief, sadness and exhilaration are what being human is all about! Yet, it’s all about sitting back and knowing that an emotion is just that: an emotion and by recognizing it, you can control how you feel and take back the seat of power in your life.

1.You’re stuck on repeat

Recreating certain scenarios in your life is a sure-fire sign that you have former emotional traumas that require healing.

You may find that you keep choosing the same partner, the same job or the same living arrangements all of which do not serve your higher good. You may find that you are prone to addictive substances and crowds of people you also are prone to this behaviour. Know that you are not weak, you just need healing.

Until you can pinpoint the root cause of your emotional turmoil, the cycle will continue to repeat itself and you will find yourself creating the same situations and circumstances in your life.

Former emotional problems that you may have thought you had conquered can come bubbling back to the surface, wreaking havoc in your current state. This can leave you blaming yourself for things that you do, without knowing why you do them.

2. Your mind is overworked

We all find it difficult to stay in the present moment. Our minds are always wandering, worrying and fantasizing about the past or the future. It seems that we do everything and anything we can not face our current reality.

We dream of the future to distract ourselves from the present, in order to forget the past and the more we use our minds to avoid our present situations the more overworked we become all in order to avoid a past that hasn’t been healed.

Be gentle with your mind, by healing the past we can live in the present moment more fully and find peace.

3. You’ve lost your intuition

When you can’t differentiate between a feeling and an emotion, we know that there are wires crossed.

Emotions are a product of thought forms and without thoughts emotions wouldn’t arise. They are the product of external and internal happenings and are reactionary. By recognizing this, you endeavor into a state of awareness, of your own emotional state.

Feelings however are your natural intuitive ability to discern a situation without providing an emotional response to it. When emotional trauma is present, one cannot  discern between an emotion and a feeling and the internal compass has lost its magnetic direction. Essentially you cannot get a gage how you feel versus what you feel.

4. You’re reactive instead of proactive

As mentioned above, emotional response is reactionary to your external and internal thoughts.

Throughout your conversations with others you will find that you have triggers that you may not be aware of, as unconscious memories are hardwired to different types of thought forms coded with emotions. These then become our perceptions of the world, which become our core beliefs.

When faced with difficult situations where strong emotions come bubbling back to the surface, it is important to immediately recognize it and think before you speak. Most often, the external happening that you are perceiving is not as it seems, but merely a perception of your own belief.

When you can recognize this unhealed emotion, you can then empower yourself to heal it before it wreaks more havoc in your life.

5. You find it difficult to trust 

This will be the most obvious sign that you have unresolved emotional disturbances. The inability to trust others is a defense mechanism that we all naturally possess, as a means to protect ourselves from past emotional trauma.

Yet, finding the root of the problem is more difficult to pin down, and may not be what you think it is. Quite often we bury memories of hardships deep down into our unconscious mind where it appears to be all but forgotten. Only to manifest negatively  in others aspects of our lives.

When this happens it is important to make the unconscious-conscious when you feel ready to do so. It is only by bringing our memories forward can they be appropriately healed allowing for closure and emotional progression.

“Happiness or sorrow, whatever befalls you, walk untouched and unattached.” Buddha

by LJ Vanier, Team Spirit