EmotionalIntelligence

When intense emotions take over, it is easy to lose self-awareness. Becoming absorbed in emotions and feelings limits your awareness, but practices like meditation and cognition offer a powerful antidote, as they allow you a way to pause, moderate, and even understand your thoughts, reactions, emotions and feelings. These techniques create space between stimulus and response, providing the opportunity for greater self-control. Thus, enabling you to become the master of your thinking and choosing how to respond and act in life.

True meditation and awakening begin with your inner self. A crucial yet often overlooked aspect of meditation, awakening, or attunement, is self-awareness. Without understanding your thoughts, emotions, reactions, concerns, and desires, inner harmony will remain elusive or always out of reach. These practices inevitably amplify your inner energies, which, without self-awareness, can exacerbate existing emotions, anxieties, and reactions. This lack of self-understanding can lead to misplaced blame; when in reality, the challenges arise from within, triggered by these amplified energies, revealing previously hidden aspects of yourself. Knowing yourself and cultivating self-awareness allows you to confront these challenges with clarity and prevents the trap of blaming others for struggles that arise from within. Enabling you to achieve a more authentic awakening.

Looking back, it’s easy to see how we could have acted differently. The real power lies in recognising those moments as they happen. Hindsight can be wonderful, however, to avoid repeating unwanted reactions, you need to cultivate awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions in the moment. This awareness provides a crucial opportunity to choose your response rather than falling into old patterns. By being mindful of anger when upset, worry when stressed, or irritability when frustrated, you can interrupt reactive behaviours. As soon as you recognise a habitual reaction, pause, and consciously choose a different thought or response. This simple shift can transform your emotional responses and lead to greater peace and clarity in everyday life, creating more positive outcomes and reducing regret.

By catching unhealthy thoughts before they manifest, you gain the control to choose how you respond to the world. This simple act of pausing and questioning your thoughts; asking “Do I wish to be this way?”; breaks the cycle of reactive behaviour and allows you to cultivate more intentional and genuine responses. This practice not only prevents regret but also fosters a greater sense of self-awareness and empowers you to live more truthfully aligned with your intentions, leading to more positive interactions.

We often become so entangled in our thoughts and emotional reactions that we fail to recognise how much our minds, through unconscious reactions, govern our lives. Your mind governs your life unless you choose otherwise. You have the choice to either passively slide into pre-programmed patterns or actively choose your responses. By pausing to reflect on how thoughts and emotions affect you, you have the opportunity to reclaim control and act with the intention to achieve the best outcome. This conscious choice empowers you to live more authentically, breaking free from reactive patterns and creating a more fulfilling and intentional life.

On the path of awakening, you’ll face challenges, many of which may not be immediately obvious; some subtle and others more pronounced. Your thoughts and emotions play a crucial role in this journey, but certain emotions, like fear, arrogance, rage, despondency, jealousy, and greed, fuel the lower ego, taking control of your life and creating significant obstacles. Recognising and addressing these lower emotions within yourself is crucial. By consciously bringing them under control and actively banishing them, you prevent them from empowering your lower ego and regaining control over your life. This practice enables you to progress on your awakening journey, fostering greater authenticity and strengthening your path forward.

When strong emotions arise, pausing before reacting gives you the power to regain control and avoid being overwhelmed by reactive thoughts and sensations. This brief pause disrupts reactive patterns, allowing you to choose whether to engage with the emotion. By stepping back instead of engaging, you separate yourself from the emotion, choosing not to identify with the feeling. You create space freeing your mind to choose a better response, empowering you to navigate intense emotions with greater ease and maintain a sense of inner peace. What’s in it for you? More calm, clarity, and control in navigating life’s emotional challenges. Techniques like Life Force Cognition can enhance this control and further strengthen your ability to master your mind.

Your thoughts carry energy, shaping your world. Your words and actions impact not only yourself and others but also influence the world around you. Realise that negative thoughts about others ultimately harm you as well. Mindful communication is so very important. Choosing not to have the “last word” or “win” every argument, especially when upset, projects positive intentions and protects cherished memories from being overshadowed by negativity. This practice encourages greater self-awareness, fosters more genuine interactions, and ultimately contributes to your happiness and the well-being of those around you.

As thoughts arise within your mind, they become energised, flowing out into the world in the words you speak or via your actions. When you think badly of others, then realise that your own thoughts can also injure you. So no matter what scenario you are in, or how aggrieved you are, you do not need to have the last word or symbolically win the argument. If you are upset, angry, or annoyed you may often find that your last words can often obliterate the wonderful intentions or the exceptional memories.

How many times do we look back at situations in our lives and acknowledge that, with hindsight, we could have reacted differently? If you end up being aware of your sensations, emotions and ideas, then you have the opportunity to respond differently. Be aware of your tension if you become stressed out. Be mindful of your irritation when you are upset or angry. Once you become aware and are mindful, you can pause, then decide to alter the way you behave or react differently, to any situation.

If you are being mindful of your thoughts, feelings and emotions, then you have the opportunity to no longer end up being lost in these aspects, and then have the chance to choose how to respond or act. Try to take the seat as the active observer, by viewing your thoughts and emotions from the outside looking in. This will help to improve your awareness, allowing you the opportunity to pause your thinking, then choose to change your way of thinking or respond differently.

Do not let feelings win, control & overwhelm your life. You need to make every effort to let go of any negative feelings so that they do not end up being a controlling aspect. Attempt to be an observer of feelings as they spill into your life, rather than being drowned in their torrent.

Do not let emotions win to control you and ruin your life. You should strive to let go of any negative emotions so that they do not become a controlling factor in your life.

If at all possible any feelings of unhappiness should not be allowed to exist within you at any time. All situations you are going through in your life, in the workplace or home, wherever possible, should be observed and understood as being experiences for learning.

Try to be an observer of emotions as they spill into your life, rather than being drowned in the torrent of thoughts and feelings which arise as a result of “playing the game”.

One of the most commonly asked questions is how can meditation or similar practices help deal with strong damaging emotions, such as anger, hatred, and jealousy.

The good news is, that if you are asking the question, you are already part of the way to the answer. The fact that you have asked the question indicates that you may have been sufficiently mindful and observant to notice the negative states of your mind.  Which, by the way, is not an easy accomplishment. Most people are entirely absorbed in their emotions and have limited self-awareness. Generally, those who ask this question have noticed what is happening in their minds as they were being swept into a whirlwind of negative emotions.

The best course of action is that you need to learn to become the master of your mind as well as your emotions. The moment that you feel a strong emotion building, first pause so that you can regain control and not fall into the pending onslaught of emotions, thoughts and feelings. Once you have paused the reactionary processes of your mind, the most effective choice is not to participate. In effect, you do not want that emotion or that emotional reaction to be a part of you. If you feel sufficiently in control, you may take the time to observe the emotion, but always push those emotional aspects away as you do not want them to become part of your life. Applying aspects of Life Force Cognition can help to bring greater control to your mind to help you deal with such situations.

Pure attention is one of the highest forms of intellect. Often as humankind, we dive into the muddy water of emotional entanglements as we try to conquer or control things in our lives.  When instead, our best course of action would have been to pause, then become observant. As you try to understand something, it is usually best to set aside your preconceptions and observe it through the quietness of mind. This way, your observation will reveal what needs to be comprehended or understood.

Pure attention without judgment is not only the highest form of human intelligence, but also the expression of harmlessness. Take the time to observe through the quietness of mind.