Emotions are our friends.

     Emotions are our friends.  We do not honor them enough in our society.  That is why there are so many people that lash out against eachothr because they are unable to deal with their feelings in appropriate effective ways.  Feelings need to be taught to children.  They affect them all the time.  When we listen to our own feelings and the feelings of others it is easier to be part of a group. When we are aware of our emotions and the emotions of others we are more effective socially.  How do we learn to recognize, map out and navigate the emotional terrain?

    We must explore the causes of our emotions which are often a mystery to even us.  We stuff our feelings and box them up as if they are criminals to be put in jail.  But, that is a serious mistake.  Every emotion that stews inside us whether it is good or bad is related to the world around us.  Most often it is related to how a person behaved toward us.  So, if we can understand the causes of our feelings we will be able to navigate the world around us to promote our own emotional wellbeing.

     The cultural norm keeps us in our head.  We think about our lives and have lost touch with how to honestly feel and experience our lives. Some therapeutic approaches tell us we cannot cause feelings in others.  This keeps us separate.   I would like to think that each and every one of us in intertwined and connected environmentally, socially, emotionally, and cosmically.  Therefore I would like to point out that if we are going to build emotional literacy, we must examine our feelings, and how the actions of ourselves and others affect the way we and others feel.  Claud Steiner PhD rewrites the famous Fritz Perls “Gestalt Prayer” to say:

If I do my thing and you do your thing

 And if we don’t live up to each other’s expectations

 We might live but the world will not survive.

You are you, and I am I, and together

 Joining hands, not by chance,

We will find each other beautiful

 If not we can’t be helpful.

Let us begin to feel in our hearts the joy, pain, suffering, and love around us.  We might be able to help make the world a better place!