Since the election, I am reading, hearing about and viewing lots of emotion out in the world. So many feelings are being expressed, cried about, and spewed. Protest, sit-ins, boycotts and even riots are the go-to solution for all of these feelings. We all react to feelings differently. My knee-jerk reaction to intense emotion is to analyze it and find the facts amidst all of the feelings.
Feelings are overwhelming, over-stimulating, too much and too wrong. Feelings send you into the closet if you give into them, just for the quiet and the reprieve. Facts give you data. Look at mood swings. Feelings take you on a sometimes fantastic, sometimes fatal journey of emotion. Analyze your mood swing. What environmental factors changed? Did anything change? Or did your feelings change? A quick and simple analysis will tell you that YOU changed. Nothing around you is at fault for how YOU DECIDE TO FEEL and any given moment. Moods, feelings, gut, and hunches: they are all suspect and should take a firm back seat to FACTS.
Feelings can’t be trusted. Feelings are liars. Just look at a panic attack. Feelings tell you you’re going to die. Right here and now…you will die. ALL LIES. Ride a panic attack out. You didn’t die. Major depressive episode: Feelings tell you the world will be better off without you. It will be actually easier on your family. LIES. Look at all the suicides committed by amazing and wonderful people who made the mistake of trusting their feelings. Why should you ever trust your feelings again?
Feelings are for the Eat, Pray, Love generation. Feelings tell vulnerable snowflakes that they have just met their soulmate. Even though they are already married and have families. Feelings tell middle aged women and men that they just aren’t “happy” anymore, and that they need to follow their bliss and find themselves. Feelings tell teenage girls that the bad boy is worth it and she can change him and that the solid guy is boring. Feelings tell fiscally irresponsible folks that they have to have that couch/watch/house/car now and that they deserve it although it can’t be afforded. Feelings are fickle.
Feelings tell some voters that one candidate is mean or insensitive (there it is with those pesky emotions). Facts tell me which one rigged a primary, was irresponsible and treasonous with classified information, put our nation at grave risk, ran a shady foundation, and threw temper tantrums. All facts. I make my decisions based on facts, on which candidate I THOUGHT (not felt) would be better for this country right now. The only mistake I admit to, is assuming that voters on the other side of the aisle made their decision to vote for their candidate based on facts. I assumed we both want what is best for the nation that we leave to our children. So my respect for them didn’t diminish, and I didn’t think any less of their decision because I THINK we all made decisions with the same process. I expected the same treatment. I am obviously wrong. Lots of feelings involved there, and lots of ire, hatred, hysteria and incredulity coming from the other side. Notice all the feelings?
Feelings are for hallmark movies, the Lifetime Movie Channel, outstanding novels, and musical scores. They have their place. Maslow’s Hierarchy is a “nice to have”. I would argue that our country is hanging by a thread to the second level of Maslow’s pyramid at “safety and security” or maybe you don’t remember 9/11.
I don’t choose my vote, nor do I make any major decisions based on feelings. It is working for me so far. So I don’t plan to change. This I know: I cannot or will not surround myself with volatile people mired down in a vortex of emotions. It isn’t healthy for me. We are all “sensitive”, some more than others. I know this about myself, therefore I choose thoughtful people for my inner circle. I value my friends with differing opinions who make their decisions based on their own thinking and facts. We need to keep our conversations open and the communication flowing. That’s how we all learn. I refuse to surround myself with emotionally volatile people, but I choose to surround myself with those that challenge my thoughts, present me with facts, and maintain a dialogue filled with respect and the understanding that we all want what is best for our nation. This I DECIDED.
Peace and blessings…
