Is Life just about Emotions?

 

Is Life just about Emotions?

We react emotionally to situations throughout our lives – but that is not just true of human beings but also of the animal world. There are so many stories, where dogs, cats, elephants, crocodiles, etc. show their sensitive sides and react emotionally by denying themselves food when someone close to them dies or falls sick.

Rational thought helped us shape the world for our future: rerouting rivers, breeding plants, caging tigers. We now have two highly developed systems: reason and the emotional core still sitting there, like the primitive animal inside us. As said above, mental illnesses often result from an imbalance in those two.

The distinction between man and animal is that man has got the capacity to think whereas animals do not have that capacity. From very early in life, in fact immediately after a child is born love flowers between mother and child, then if the child falls sick there is care and concern, which turns to worry and fear if things turn for the worse. Therefore, it has always been said that man is a bundle of emotions. Being emotional is not bad, but invariably extreme emotional reactions lead to all round stress.

If we learn to manage our emotions, get control over our emotions then we can be both loving and compassionate which are the positive manifestations of our emotions. It is necessary to master the negative emotions, better still it would be wonderful if we could just focus on the positive aspects of life and grow emotionally strong.

The way to mastery over emotions is through the practice of mindfulness and meditation. Meditation under the guidance of a realised Master helps us turn inwards and our search for external happiness comes to an end. The inward journey takes us to the core where our identity merges with that of the soul. Once that happens, we become a witness to life – becoming a witness means transcending the emotional state of human beings and becoming loving and compassionate towards all those whom we come in touch with. So, even though life  is about emotions – what is important is how we enhance our positive emotions while mastering the negative ones!