Spiritual Anthropology - West

Lap Learning Goal Three: Assess how the challenges and dangers of dealing with difficult emotions (generally and personally) are related to spirituality and argue the importance of emotional intelligence.

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Dealing With Difficult Emotions (Essential Spirituality Series)

Rev Dr. Arvid Straube

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Class Presentation by Madison Gillespie

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Emotions provide a much better gateway to the spiritualdimension of our lives than beliefs. Awe and wonder are emotions particularly associated with spiritual experiences. Calm, joy, and contentment are among other emotions that typify mature spirituality.

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Depression, sadness, anger, frustration, drug addiction and alcoholism all stem from an inability to effectively deal with life's problems and an inability to express pent-up emotions. This is caused by our having too many wants and desires, and unrealistic expectations of comforts and pleasures, and an expected sense of gratification.

To deal with emotions we need to understand how our thinking mind and our emotional mind differ.

Our thinking mind is also known as our intellect or logical and rationalizing mind. It judges and evaluates what is good and bad for us. It is slow in making decisions and is very calculative. It does not believe in taking risks. Decision-making is based on past experiences, value systems and our knowledge-base.

Our emotional mind is a feeling mind, which is very powerful to deciding what we need. It can be impulsive and illogical. Our emotional mind is quicker to make decisions, often deciding in a split second without rational thought of consequences.

The emotional mind is like a double-edged sword. It can be of immense value if managed in a balanced way. It is very creative and its powers are unlimited. Creativity and new ideas originate from our emotional mind.

On the other hand, impulsive emotional decisions can cause a great deal of inner conflict and conflict with other people. This can lead to emotional imbalance and relationship problems.

Our emotional mind is hugely powerful, but it needs to be held in balance by learning to recognize emotional decisions and considering the possible consequences.

In summary:

Become aware of your two types of thought, and learn to discern whether you are making decisions with your emotional mind of with your rational mind.

If you're making a decision with your emotional mind, take time to weigh the risks and possible consequences. Learn to rationalize the emotional brain.

Over the past few years I have developed the practice of analyzing my thinking pattern and processes. To be aware of your thinking or to think about your thinking is called metacognition. This is a powerful tool through which you can learn to understand your logical and emotional decisions.

MANAGING YOUR EMOTIONAL BRAIN THROUGH SPIRITUALITY

Balancing emotions is a big challenge as your emotional mind works in a non-rational way and often overrules rational thought. At one moment we can be reasonable and the very next moment we become irrational and illogical.

I believe psychotherapy and psychoanalytical methods have a limited effect. They try to bring awareness of the emotional mind and its decisions, but fail to provide a way to modulate emotional decisions and make them more intelligent.

Spirituality lends intelligent guidance to our emotional mind. At lower levels of consciousness, we are very vulnerable to emotional imbalance as our emotional mind often overrules logical and rational thought.

In contrast, when our level of consciousness is raised to a higher level we deal with emotions in a powerful and more balanced way. Instead of searching for understanding and depth in our emotional decisions, we must work hard to raise our consciousness and our level of spirituality.

Egoistic thinking focused on seeking pleasure and likes-dislikes keep our consciousness at low levels. In order to manage our emotional quotient (EQ) we need to develop our spiritual quotient (SQ).

Spiritual powers are dormant in all of us and can completely transform a person, taking the individual mind from likes-dislikes to a higher state of love, kindness and bliss. All we need to do is awaken the spiritual powers within us.

The problem with spirituality is that it needs to be liberated from religion and be demystified. There are powerful non-religious ways to increase spirituality, some of which are easy to practice.

I have made it my lifework to find fun and easy ways to help people to raise their level of spirituality. If these can become practiced on a large scale, conflicts and imbalances will begin to resolve, even at global levels, leading eventually to a peaceful and joyful world.

INCREASING YOUR SPIRITUALITY

The following tools are effective non-religious ways to awake our spiritual powers.

Laughter and breathing practices Yoga and Meditation Devotion Surrender to the Universe Following Spiritual Laws Practicing Spiritual Values Understanding and Transcending the Mind

This is the beginning of a series of writings on spirituality. Please post your comments and responses - I look forward to learning through community discussion.

Madan Kataria

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Repressed emotions are unactualized spiritual lessons. To separate emotional from spiritual life, is to separate the heart from the spirit. They are indistinguishable threads of the same weave. Its all too easy to hide our truth under a bushel of shame, but that only stalls our spiritual growth. How to grow in our spirituality if not through our interface with our emotional lives?

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Emotions are a part of what make life rich and fascinating. They are also part of what makes life challenging at times. Rock says there are only three options for dealing with emotions. Understanding these choices is vital as they can profoundly affect your health and well-being. Suppressing your emotions is nearly always the worst choice.Expressing your emotions is often the best thing to do, but that isn’t always possible (picture a 43 year old running and shouting through cubicle land!). Transforming emotions is the most powerful of the choices and is worth learning and practicing

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http://mindfullivingforlife.com/difficult-emotions/

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In a nutshell…

1.Being aware of one’s own emotions.

2.Being able to manage one’s own emotions.

3.Being sensitive to the emotions of others.

4.Being able to respond to and negotiate with other people emotionally.

5.Being able to use one’s own emotions to motivate oneself.

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Spirituality

Spirituality can be a way to find purpose and meaning in life. A key part of happiness is the sense that life is worthwhile. We need a sense of meaning to feel that we matter, that our life isn’t futile, and that we have some control over our fate. A sense of meaning for our lives improves our self-esteem.

Spirituality can help provide meaning by giving us:

Transcendence; a sense of being part of something larger

Purpose and mission in life

A way to find meaning in ordinary and traumatic events

Satisfaction for our need for explanation

A sense of permanence

A spiritual practice or faith tradition also encourages us to value and cultivate positive emotions that are linked to happiness, such as:

Awe

Inspiration

Joy

Love

Contentment

Gratitude

Reverence

Generosity

Compassion

Peace

Security

Wholeness

People who experience more positive emotions are happier than those who experience fewer positive emotions, even if the level of negative emotions is the same. 

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We cannot enjoy life if we spend a lot of time worrying about what happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow. We worry about tomorrow because we are afraid. If we are afraid all the time, we cannot appreciate that we are alive and can be happy now.

Thich Nhat Hanh

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What are you supposed to do with difficult emotions?

JasminBalanceTV

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What are you supposed to do with difficult emotions?

Difficult emotions are not fun or enjoyable. They are painful, hurt, are uncomfortable and we don’t like to deal with them. However, they are part of the wholeness that we are and of our human experience. If we don’t address and take care of them properly, then they come out in other ways.

Anger is a good example of this. I think of anger as being not a pure emotion in and of itself. Rather, it is a response to pain and hurt. If you have a lot of pain and are holding it in, it can come out as anger. I believe that if you really deal with the vulnerability that comes with your pain, you might not even have the need to express anger.

Ultimately, our difficult emotions are kind of like a child. If you think of a crying baby whose upset, you wouldn’t yell at them and say “what’s wrong with you?” “you shouldn’t be upset?” because you won’t help anything if you treat them that way. Instead you should soothe them, hug them, and let them know they are okay and that this will pass.

It’s important to likewise handle our darkness and difficult emotions with that same love. Because we are often so mean to our own inner child and we abuse it instead of taking care of it as a loving adult.

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If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.

Daniel Goleman (via pixelation)