Power Shift
A whole spectrum of valid emotions courses through each of us. Some sources say we each can feel up to 34,000 different emotions, and contrary to popular connotation; No emotion is bad. Each serves a purpose. The bad part only happens when a person stays in an emotion too long, letting it take control, or making poor decisions about how to act on an emotion. It’s not the emotion itself that’s bad. It’s the consequence of unmitigated behavior.
Your emotions are here to help. Ask how each one is serving you before trying to push it away. Some emotions have gotten a bad rep, but let’s change the stigma. Don’t just dismiss it; investigate where the emotion is coming from, and what it’s trying to tell you. Then you can address the issue and move past it. You can find power in your emotions. Ignoring them can make it worse, and lead to a life out of control.
Running from emotions is fearing our own power. Fearing our own power is a contributor to a life out of control, and can be contagious to those around us. We may be afraid of making decisions because then we’d be responsible for the consequences.
Since we often don’t know what will result before it happens, we sometimes mistakenly seek safety by blindly appointing someone else to choose for us, or we make decisions out of fear; a low-frequency emotion with low-frequency results, like having less control in our lives.
When we choose to face our fears–taking back our power–then we make decisions from higher frequency emotions, and can expect higher frequency results and emotions, and a greater ability to manage our life.
Take a minute to think about your favorite character from a book or a movie, or a real-life role model. What do you admire about this person? How did they achieve the results you admire? What can you learn from that to apply to your own life?
One element every good story has in common is that the lead characters are key decision-makers. Do you want to advance your life like your role models’ stories, or do you want to become more satisfied with your current circumstances? Either answer is right because it’s your answer for your life.
In order to change either your life or your perspective the way you want it, and not necessarily what someone else is choosing or manipulating you to do, you’ll need to get comfortable with some unintended consequences; unless you can predict and plan every single detail. Creating a situation different from the one you’re in now is an entirely new experience and will likely always come with some unexpected results.
And it will take discomfort, as your body and mind will try to turn anything new into something that looks the same as the past, to help you feel safe and secure. It’s going to feel unsafe at first to change things, until that becomes more familiar and comfortable to you.
Small things come quickly. Bigger things take more time. Metaphorically speaking, it’s like building muscle; start with a little weight. Gradually add more; include nutrition for building.
Your new life is only as far away as learning to manage the emotions that might otherwise stop you.
Accessing your new and improved life requires you to get in the driver’s seat of your emotions. If you feel out of control of your life, you’ve got to get in control of your emotions. In order to do that, you’ve got to acknowledge them, give them space, and then take action to process them.
Logic and emotion can work together. Often without realizing it consciously, we all come up with reasons to justify emotionally based actions. Your emotions can be one of your biggest assets or they can be used against you.
Marketers and manipulators understand your emotions and how to use them for their benefit. The best way to combat falling into these traps is to understand your emotions and how to use them as well as manipulators do.
If you’re unaware of how you operate emotionally, from the inside out, you can be tricked or pushed into doing something you wouldn’t have chosen to do yourself, but still believe you made the choice. You can say no, but someone using the power of persistence against a weak boundary can turn your ‘no’ into a ‘yes’. Anyone aware of your triggers, principles, things that offend you, or any area of sensitivity or heightened emotions, can use all of these to distract you.
Emotional influences around your personal opinions can be used by someone else to get you off topic, convince you to change a decision; take your focus off a question you asked, so you never get an answer, drag you into a circling argument with no end; or generally to keep you from accessing what you really want. Your energy can be stolen on the regular to benefit someone else’s intentions over your own.
While it’s wonderful to serve other people’s needs in addition to your own, the healthy way to achieve that is called interdependence; not usually dependence beyond childhood, and not manipulation. You can practice and gain an even greater ability to be aware of where your energy is going and what you’re choosing, for yourself and those for whom you are responsible.
As I mentioned in the beginning, I still have moments that are out of control, but I’m learning all I can about what’s causing them, and how to manage them. The better I learn to manage my emotions–MY emotion; ie, not manage other people, but myself–the more of my day is under my conscious influence. Then the net result in my life is that I’m in charge; I decide which way I’m going. That also means I’m responsible for any fallout. No one takes the blame except myself, and at times, sharing that equally with who I’ve decided to co-create.
Something super important to remember is to not make rash decisions when in low-frequency emotions. That’s one of the patterns that gives those emotions a bad reputation. It’s not the emotion’s fault a person makes a poor decision with it. Anger doesn’t make someone burn bridges–figuratively and literally. Mentally preparing before entering a low-frequency state can help you to choose responses over reactions during tough situations.
Happy Tip #3: Make Subtle Shifts To New Places (Click here for FREE printout)
Small shifts can yield big results, and sometimes with fairly little effort.
- Think about an area of your life where you’d like to feel more satisfaction.
- Identify what would need to change in order for you to feel satisfied?
- Name one small thing you can do right now to shift towards that outcome.
Making these subtle shifts leads to feeling better both now and later. Changing nothing can lead to feeling stuck. It’s great to have things that don’t change, and offer a feeling of stability. But as for the things in your life that don’t feel great and have been around for awhile, maybe it’s time to get comfortable with the idea of taking unfamiliar steps.
Instead of going super far outside of familiar territory, just take a few small steps and see what happens. A lot of people think only anxiety and panic are waiting for them outside the comfort zone, so they stay stuck. You’ve got to get a little uncomfortable to change, and it’s generally in your best interest to change something if you’re not satisfied.
Make sure the benefits outweigh the risks. Break your big goals into mini goals, and break them down into the smallest possible steps.
Remember:
A big goal all at once = panic and stagnation.
A small step = barely uncomfortable + movement in your chosen direction.
Universe Rules 