Emotion or Event?
Its not what happens to us, it is how we feel about what happens to us that causes us to suffer in our lives.
It’s the emotion not the event.
We have been programmed to believe that an external event happens and it automatically creates an emotion.
This happened and so I feel this way.
You lose your phone, you feel sad.
You get stuck in traffic, you feel frustrated.
You didn’t get the job, you feel angry.
We say.....
He made me so mad.
She made me cry.
You hurt my feelings.
The truth is- the Event doesn’t cause the Emotion. We choose the emotion.
We don’t realize we have a choice in how we want to feel because these emotional reactions are our unconscious programs, our well worn neural pathways.
We actually become addicted to these reactions and they become habits.
The good news is with practice we we can break the habit of our emotional reactions. We don’t have to be a victim to our unconscious programs. Because we have the ability to decide how we feel.
So when a “negative” event happens in your life try this 5 STEP PLAN:
Stop breathe and create some space between the event & your reaction.
Remind yourself that you are in control- It is not the event that is causing the emotion.
Choose to react differenty- that is, respond don’t react.
Replace the emotion with a new reaction- gratitude is a good one to try.
And repeat. Practice, practice practice.
Be kind and patient with yourself. This new reaction will not feel comfortable at first.
But the more you stop and choose your emotional reactions the more in control you will feel.
The stronger your new neural connections for gratitude, peace and understanding will become.
And this is how we heal the world.
It starts with you.
You have a choice.
It’s the Emotion- not the Event.
