Understanding Emotions - Part 1
Summary
TLDRIn this Actualized.org video, Leo delves into the mastery of emotions, emphasizing the importance of emotional vocabulary and understanding emotions' role in life. He discusses the link between emotions and behaviors, highlighting how poor emotional intelligence can lead to unresourceful actions and life dissatisfaction. Leo introduces a model from the Sedona Method to categorize emotions, urging viewers to practice mindfulness to become more aware of their emotional states. He stresses that emotions are neither inherently good nor bad and that true life fulfillment comes from achieving peace and acceptance. The video concludes with a practical exercise to enhance emotional awareness and the promise of transformation through consistent practice.
Takeaways
- 𧑠Emotions are a complex matrix of feelings in the body and mind, not just simple labels like 'anger' or 'happiness'.
- π Developing an emotional vocabulary is crucial for understanding and managing one's emotions effectively.
- π€ Many people lack the ability to identify and articulate their emotions, which can hinder personal growth and success.
- π‘ Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a significant factor in achieving success and fulfillment in life, often more so than IQ.
- π Emotions are dynamic and ever-changing, flowing through us like waves rather than being static states.
- π Emotions act as a language of the body, communicating messages that can guide behavior and reactions.
- π« Avoid labeling emotions as strictly 'good' or 'bad'; they are neither inherently positive nor negative.
- π§ββοΈ Mindfulness is key to gaining control over emotions, which involves observing them without judgment or attempts to suppress them.
- π High EQ correlates with better decision-making and more resourceful behaviors, leading to improved life outcomes.
- π The ultimate goal is to cultivate emotions of peace, acceptance, and wholeness, as these are what truly drive human fulfillment.
- π οΈ Practicing mindfulness through exercises, such as journaling emotions at set intervals throughout the day, can enhance emotional awareness and EQ.
Q & A
What is the main focus of Leo's video on actualized.org?
-The main focus of Leo's video is on mastering emotions, building an emotional vocabulary, and understanding how emotions function in our lives.
Why did Leo feel compelled to create this video series on emotions?
-Leo felt compelled to create this video series because he noticed that many of his clients in coaching sessions had a very limited emotional vocabulary, which hindered their ability to communicate and understand their feelings.
What is the significance of having a rich emotional vocabulary according to the video?
-Having a rich emotional vocabulary is significant because it allows individuals to be more conscious of their feelings, identify emotions accurately, and avoid being dominated and controlled by their emotions in their daily lives.
What does Leo suggest is the correlation between high emotional intelligence (EQ) and success in life?
-Leo suggests that high emotional intelligence (EQ), rather than IQ or logical rational intelligence, is one of the greatest character traits that correlate with success and fulfillment in life.
How does Leo define emotions in the video?
-Leo defines emotions as a matrix of feelings in the body, a rich and complex set of sensations that are not just physical but also involve mental chatter and tonality.
What is the Sedona Method that Leo briefly mentions in the video?
-The Sedona Method is a technique for releasing emotions, which Leo is not covering in detail in the video but uses their model to provide a framework for understanding different levels of emotions.
What are the categories of emotions that Leo discusses in the video?
-Leo discusses categories of emotions such as apathy, grief, fear, lust, anger, pride, courage, acceptance, and peace, moving from less resourceful to more resourceful emotional states.
How does Leo describe the process of mindfulness in relation to emotions?
-Leo describes mindfulness in relation to emotions as the practice of stopping, feeling the emotion without judging or labeling it, and becoming fully aware of the sensations in the body and mind associated with the emotion.
What is the exercise Leo suggests to practice mindfulness and emotional awareness?
-Leo suggests setting multiple alarms on a smartphone throughout the day. When each alarm rings, one should stop, feel the current emotion, and write it down in a journal without judging it as good or bad.
How does Leo's exercise aim to help individuals master their emotions?
-The exercise aims to help individuals develop emotional awareness and higher EQ by practicing mindfulness consistently over a week, which can lead to better control over emotions and ultimately, mastery over one's life.
What is Leo's mission with actualized.org, as mentioned in the video?
-Leo's mission with actualized.org is to research and find the most powerful concepts, mindsets, and principles that can help people apply them practically in their lives to create the extraordinary life they desire.
Outlines
π Mastering Your Emotions: Introduction
Leo from Actualized.org introduces the video series on mastering emotions, emphasizing the importance of understanding emotions for personal development. He discusses the limited emotional vocabulary many people have and how it affects their ability to communicate and manage their feelings. The series aims to build emotional intelligence (EQ), which is linked to success and fulfillment more than IQ. Leo also addresses the misconception that some people are not emotional, arguing that everyone is driven by their emotions.
π§ The Complexity of Emotions
Leo delves into the complexity of emotions, likening them to a matrix of feelings in the body and mind. He uses anger as an example to illustrate the various sensations, mental chatter, and tonality that make up a single emotion. He emphasizes that emotions are more than simple labels and that understanding their nuances is crucial for personal growth.
π The Dynamic Nature of Emotions
Emotions are described as dynamic and flowing, rather than static states. Leo uses the analogy of red paint being injected into the veins to depict how emotions move through the body, affecting different parts before dissipating. He highlights that emotions are a language of the body, a rapid communication system that predates logic and rationality, and are the primary source of motivation in human life.
π The Hierarchy of Emotions
Leo presents a model from the Sedona Method to categorize emotions into a hierarchy ranging from unresourceful states like apathy to more resourceful and positive emotions like peace. He lists specific emotions under categories such as grief, fear, lust, anger, pride, courage, acceptance, and peace, encouraging viewers to visualize and feel each emotion to enhance their emotional vocabulary.
π§ββοΈ Practicing Mindfulness with Emotions
Leo discusses the importance of mindfulness in becoming aware of one's emotions. He advises against labeling emotions as good or bad and instead encourages fully feeling and experiencing each emotion. He emphasizes that emotions are neither inherently good nor bad but are sensations in the body and mind. Leo also touches on the idea that emotions act as a bridge between the unconscious and conscious mind.
𧲠Emotions as Magnetic Forces
Emotions are likened to magnetic fields, guiding behavior towards or away from certain actions. Leo explains that while emotions can be powerful motivators for survival and reproduction, they are not always aligned with happiness or fulfillment. He suggests that to achieve higher goals, one must learn to manage negative emotional reactions and cultivate more positive, resourceful emotional states.
πͺ Rewiring Emotions for Higher Consciousness
Leo speaks about the need to 'unwire' severe negative emotional reactions and transition towards higher consciousness emotions like peace and acceptance. He stresses that what people truly desire in life are the emotions of peace, acceptance, and wholeness, rather than material possessions or social status. He also addresses the question of whether emotions can be controlled, noting that direct control is not possible, but a form of 'pseudo control' can be achieved through mindfulness.
π Developing Mindfulness Through Journaling
Leo provides an exercise to practice mindfulness by setting multiple alarms throughout the day to prompt self-reflection on current emotions. He suggests writing these emotions down in a journal to build emotional awareness and EQ. By doing this consistently for a week, one can develop a heightened sense of emotional awareness, which is crucial for mastering emotions and, ultimately, life itself.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Emotional Vocabulary
π‘Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
π‘Emotions
π‘Mindfulness
π‘Behavior Loops
π‘Self-Actualization
π‘Emotional Messages
π‘Stoic
π‘Apathy
π‘Peace
Highlights
Mastering your emotions is crucial for understanding how they control and influence your life.
Many people lack an emotional vocabulary, which hinders their ability to identify and manage their feelings.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is more closely correlated with success and fulfillment than logical intelligence (IQ).
Emotions are often unconscious and can lead to unresourceful behaviors and problematic behavior loops.
Understanding emotions can prevent needless suffering and help achieve life goals more effectively.
Emotions are a complex matrix of feelings in the body and mind, not just simple labels like 'anger' or 'happiness'.
Emotion is a dynamic and flowing experience, not a fixed state.
Emotions serve as a language of the body, communicating messages that can guide actions and reactions.
The Sedona Method provides a structured model for understanding different levels and categories of emotions.
There are hundreds of emotions, each with unique shades and subtleties.
Becoming aware of the variety of emotions can help in identifying and expressing one's feelings.
Emotions are neither inherently good nor bad; they are sensations that can be interpreted and managed.
Mindfulness is key to developing control over emotions, achieved by observing them without judgment.
Practicing mindfulness involves stopping to feel emotions physically and noticing them without trying to control them.
An exercise for developing mindfulness includes setting alarms to remind oneself to check in with current emotions.
Developing emotional awareness through mindfulness can lead to mastering emotions and, ultimately, one's life.
Leo from Actualized.org encourages viewers to sign up for the newsletter for weekly insights on mastering life.
Transcripts
hey this is Leo for actualized.org and
in this video I'm going to be talking
about mastering your emotions part
[Music]
one this is a very important video that
I've been meaning to shoot now for a
while and I wanted to do it right so I
decided to split it up into couple of
Parts here and basically what we're
going to be talking about in this series
is getting you a much deeper
understanding of your
emotions helping you to build an
emotional
vocabulary and getting you to understand
how emotions function in your
life uh the thing that really inspired
me and kind of prompted me to want to
shoot this video is because you know I
work with clients uh in coaching
sessions and one of the things I
discovered with clients is that when I
try to get them to talk about their
emotions uh they usually end up drawing
a blank and what this shows me is that
they have a very very very very limited
emotional
vocabulary and so I started thinking
like oh man you know um it's hard to
even coach these people because they
can't even assign just basic labels to
the feelings that they have in their
body in different situations in their
lives and because of this they're
basically unconscious to what's
happening in their body and how these
emotions are dominating and controlling
their lives and so what I find is that
in general most people are this way most
people have poor emotional vocabulary
they don't have a rich diversity of
emotions that they're able to feel and
they're able to
identify they're not really able to talk
about the emotions that they have which
creates problems
and in general most people are quite
clueless about what emotions are and
exactly how they function so I wanted to
uh dive into that here basically what
we're talking about here throughout this
whole series of videos is emotional
intelligence
EQ and I have another video that talks
about emotional intelligence and
introduces that topic more on point um
I'm not going to be too focused on
emotional intelligence other than to
show you that basically what emotional
intelligence is is what we're going to
be talking about here and this these
videos here show you kind of how to
develop emotional
intelligence um and basically they've
done studies and they've they found that
uh one of the
greatest character traits that
correlates with success and fulfillment
in life is high
EQ not IQ not logical rational
intelligence but emotional intelligence
now why is this and why is this whole
topic
important well
basically uh
unconsciously emotions run pretty much
your entire
life emotions unconsciously pretty much
generate all of your results in
life all the stuff that you think you do
consciously and deliberately and
rationally and logically well you're
deluding yourself about much of that
actually it's your emotions that are
running those behaviors so the most
important element of all this here is
that emotions generate behaviors for
most people and because of this this
creates a lot of
unresourceful problematic behaviors and
then you can get stuck in these Behavior
Loops which don't get you the results
that you
want so one problem here is that many
people are not able to identify emotions
properly they just don't have the words
and the labels to even talk about
them that's a big
problem another problem that people have
is that we generally don't understand
what the messages of our emotions
are did you know that uh an emotion can
be a message it can carry a conscious
message with it so that you can take the
message of the emotion and not need to
react like an animal just against the
feeling and The Sensation so most people
don't know which emotions have which
messages and that's going to be what
part two is going to be about and I'll
tell you exactly which messages you need
to know for some of the most common
emotions that you'll encounter in
life and another problem that I see is
that people are not able to get coached
or they're not able to get therapy
because they're not able to express
their emotions and delve into their
emotions which is necessary for
successful
coaching and so when you combine all
this stuff together basically what you
get is terrible results in life
and you also get much needless suffering
so wouldn't it be nice if we can address
some of this here so you uh can avoid
all this U needless
suffering uh and before I go and start
talking about what emotions
are uh just one word of warning if you
think that you're watching this video
and you think well Leo I'm not a very
emotional person I mean maybe some
people are emotional or maybe you're
talking about like what you're talking
about here is going to be helpful for
women uh because they're more emotional
creatures but like I'm this strong stoic
guy I don't need all this emotional talk
I don't need to label my emotions and
feel into my emotions this is uh uh not
the way that I live
life well if you're telling yourself
that you're not an emotional
creature even if you're the most stoic
macho guy in the
world then actually what that means to
me is that you're completely clueless
about the role that emotions play in
your life you're just unconscious to it
you're so unconscious that you don't
even realize that emotions are a
critical pillar like the backbone of
your entire life even if you're the most
stoic macho guy so don't think that
you're not an emotional creature we're
all very very emotional creatures so if
we say that women are more emotional
than men yes that's true generally
speaking as a
stereotype
but that doesn't mean that meant that
men are not still highly emotional we're
all very highly emotional and we're
mostly like machines running on emotions
that's mostly what a human being is is
an emotional machine in action cycling
through emotions over and over and over
and over and over again
so open your mind to this all right if
you want to get to the highest levels of
your potential in life and if you want
to self-actualize you're not going to be
able to do it by ignoring emotions
you're going to have to really study the
hell out of them to master
them so anyways that was just a warning
uh so what are
emotions emotions are it's kind of my
definition are a matrix of
feelings in your
body a rich complex Matrix of feelings
so just one emotion let's say we take a
common one like anger right what is
anger anger is a label in our English
language that we assign to what we
assign it to a
certain collection of Sensations in our
body and also in the mind and this is a
lot more rich and complex than you would
initially believe it to be sometimes we
can look at anger and we can say oh
anger yeah I know what anger is very
obvious but
actually hold on a second maybe it's not
so obvious have you actually felt into
anger to see what it's really about have
you wondered why the anger is arising
and what it's prompting you to do
have you looked at the different shades
and degrees of anger everything from
full out violent
rage to your typical anger to uh
something like a mild frustration or an
annoyance right there's various degrees
there and how each one of those it's not
just different in degree but it's also
different qualitatively it feels
different it feels different in your
body also not only do you have a feeling
in your body and those feeling feelings
are very specific they can be located in
specific parts of your body like your
chest or your abdomen or your head or
your throat or your arms or your hands
so you can have different feelings all
throughout your body but also you've got
various internal mental chatter that's
happening in your mind and there's also
a tonality not only are there certain
mental words that you're saying when
you're angry but also there's a tonality
there's a way in which you say them
maybe it's
an aggressive violent sort of
tonality um so there's
that and um you got to start to
appreciate how this whole thing just
kind of like creates this big ball of
what we might call anger but underneath
that label anger there's this very rich
tapestry of stuff going on and on top of
all that if that wasn't enough this
emotion is not like a fixed State it's
like an animated Dynamic flowing
situation uh imagine if someone uh uh
took a syringe full of red paint and
then injected it into your veins like
into your heart stab you in the heart
with it and then squeeze that red paint
in there now if you you die from that
but assuming you didn't die and that red
paint would now dispersed and be carried
by all the veins into different parts of
uh of your body and so you can imagine
that the paint is moving through your
body and it's affecting different parts
of your body and it's touching different
parts of your body and your mind at
different times and then eventually you
might imagine that it dissipates from
your system kind of like a cloud passing
through the air well that's kind of what
an emotion is right it's like this
animated
thing it's not that you're just angry
it's that the anger starts to kind of
develop and grow and then it balloons
and then it has a peak and then it kind
of has its Climax and then it starts to
dissipate and then slowly it gets out of
your system and it transforms and melts
into some other emotion maybe now
sadness and then that sadness takes over
and then you have these waves of
emotions so emotions are not static
things um that's basically what emotions
are and the whole reasoning behind
emotions is that emot are like a
language they're like a language of your
body see if you're a very rational
logical person you tend to think that
well life is very rational and logical
and that stuff follows in a kind of
linear conscious
sequence but what you fail to appreciate
perhaps is that actually before there
was logic and before there was
rationality in the evolution of the
human being um and in the evolution of
of mammals in general what you had is
you had um a need for controlling how
the organism this machine
functions and how do you do that well
you do that with a more primitive
communication system and also in a sense
a much more complex and Rich and
lightning fast communication system than
logical linear
thinking so if a tiger walks into the
room
um it's not enough for you to see the
tiger and to think about the tiger and
say oh that's a tiger what if that tiger
bites me what if the tiger jumps on me
you know I've encountered Tigers before
and I know that they're scary ferocious
animals so probably it's better if I
leave the room right that's not your
reaction your reaction before you can
even label the thing a tiger immediately
your heart rate jumps up right
immediately you've got this feeling of
adrenaline pumping through your body
immediately you're gripped by Terror by
fear like a very visceral fear and
immediately your body is tensed up your
skin tightens different muscles in your
body tighten immediately maybe you're
already turning your head and your body
towards the nearest door or window to
jump to jump out of the room um so the
emotions are doing most of that work all
that stuff happens
in just a few
milliseconds
and uh you don't even logically have any
clue what's going on here your body's
already in motion so this is happening
thanks to your emotions right so
emotions are uh very powerful and
they're the primary source of
motivation that you have running your
life so you see now why this becomes so
important is because your behaviors are
very much influenced by emotions
now it's interesting that your behaviors
don't have to always correlate and be
totally aligned with emotions you could
actually go against your initial
emotional impulses and that's where kind
of you get into the battle between The
Logical brain and the emotional brain
where maybe something is telling you
that this thing is something you're
supposed to be afraid of over here but
your logical mind can override that and
say well yes I'm afraid but let me go
pursue it anyways maybe this is actually
going to be
beneficial to
me um and it's there where you get into
a lot of the emotional problems that
people face in life and a lot of the
stuff that holds people back from
achieving the the goals and dreams that
they have in life is because you've got
this tension going
on well to start to get a handle on all
how all this works it's helpful to uh
just get a layout of the landscape and
to
see uh what kind of emotions exist and
is there like a a rhyme and a reason to
these emotions is there a structure to
these emotions so one of the things I
want you to start to recognize is that
there are hundreds of
emotions right an emotion is this Matrix
of feelings and there's a lot of
different variety and subtlety in these
matrixes of feelings that you can have
so what I want to do here in this video
really is I want to uh give you a little
overview of the landscape I want to give
you little taste of the different
emotions that are there and I also want
to give you some uh categories that I
found helpful for me in my life to uh
get me an understanding and help
increase my emotional intelligence so
what I'm going to be sharing with you
here in a minute is uh a model a
structure for emotions that comes from
the Sedona Method now the sedot method
is a way of releasing emotions which I'm
not going to cover here it's a really
great method if you want to learn it um
but I'm just going to use their model to
kind of give you some categories like a
framework for
understanding
the different levels that emotions can
have so what you're going to notice here
as I'm going to be going through is
you're going to be noticing that there's
going to be about eight or so categories
and we're going to be talking about
these categories in order
of
ascending so we're going to start at the
most you might say negative most
unresourceful emotional states that you
can have as a human being and then we're
going to move up the ladder to slightly
more and more resourceful and quote
unquote positive
emotions okay and I want you to also
watch out for the different degrees of
emotions within the category now we're
going to be doing a little sampling here
like a little Buffet right but this is
just a very little sampling there's a
lot more in fact each one of the
categories that I'm going to tell you
probably has at least a hundred if not
more uh different shades of emotion in
it but we're just going to be covering
maybe four or five per category so
here's here's how this is going to work
I'm going to give you the category and I
don't want you to visualize the category
but then what I want you to do is I want
to kind of give you I want you to
quickly visualize the emotion within the
category and actually if you want to get
the full value of this video what you're
going to do is you're going to listen to
the whole video then you're going to
come back you're going to rewind to this
point here and you're going to relisten
slowly to each emotion as I tell it to
you and you're going to pause and I want
you to close your eyes and I want you
actually feel it
remember it recall how it was in your
life because you felt all these and then
I want you to feel it in your body and I
want you to remember what kind of
Sensations were going through your body
where in your body was this emotion
being
felt how is this emotion different from
a prior
emotion
and what is going on in your mind when
you're in the middle of this emotion
because the emotion is both the bodily
feeling and also the monkey chatter in
your mind that's going on at the same
time and the monkey chatter changes from
from motion to
emotion so anyways here we go I'm going
to go through this really fast now CU I
don't want to waste a whole hour um
giving you time to pause you're going to
do that later on your own as an exercise
if you want to okay so here we go the
first category is called
apathy and this is the least resourceful
State because it's very hard to take any
action from this state and here are the
specific emotions that I want you to
kind of quickly
visualize one is
depression feel yourself
depressed the next one is
defeated feel yourself
defeated the next one is
bored what's it like to feel
bored and the next one is
lazy think of a time when you were very
lazy okay so we're going through really
fast here so you're not really going
going to get a good taste of each one
right now in your experience so I really
encourage you to go through again a
second time and really pause between
them close your eyes and get a full
sense it might take you 30 seconds
before you get a full sense of something
like depression or something like
boredom or laziness all right but it's
worth doing this because as you do this
you're building your emotional
vocabulary right that's why I'm doing
this segment here is because I want you
to get a for the fact that there are
these specific emotions that you have
that are very common but a lot of times
you don't label them and you just kind
of skip over them in your awareness so
you kind of know what laziness feels
like but also you have no idea what
laziness feels like because probably for
your entire life when you felt lazy
you've just kind of jumped over the
laziness you told yourself oh I'm lazy
you told yourself oh I don't want to be
lazy you labeled it a bad or good
emotion and then what you did did is you
didn't actually feel into it you didn't
actually identify what laziness is in
your present
awareness right this is called
practicing mindfulness which is a really
huge thing I'm going to talk about
towards the end of the video so anyways
uh let's go on to the next category next
category is called grief which is one
notch higher more
resourceful here you've got emotions
like being
sad
hurt
betrayed
disappointed and
guilty so feel each one of those next
we're going to go to the next category
which is
fear and here you have a lot of
different types of
fear think about
Terror
nervousness
worry
insecurity fear is an interesting
category because notice that um you know
we have this General label fear but then
you have a lot of different specific
types of fear which have various degrees
of strength but also qualitative
differences from each other so for
example
Terror feels very different than
insecurity in your
body it also comes with a very different
mental chatter in your mind
so you want to become aware of what
those are for each
label okay let's go on to the next
category which is lust One Step higher a
little bit more resourceful than fear
within the lust category we have things
like
craving
possessiveness
greed
frustration
so you're going to want to feel all
those and compare and contrast those
different
feelings the next category up from that
is
anger and here we have stuff like
disgusted pissed
off
vengeful and
annoyed annoyed is an interesting one
because it can be a very subtle form of
anger that you don't even recognize as a
form of anger
interesting okay one level higher than
that we have the category of
Pride here we have things like
gloating feeling
icy judgment or being
judgmental of someone else
and
arrogance so go ahead and feel all those
and compare
those and the next category is called
courage here we have things like
confident
creative
happy and secure
so feel all those notice that now we're
getting to the higher levels of this
hierarchy and that now at these levels
we're getting into actually what you
might call positive emotions emotions
that you want more of in your life also
notice that the emotions that are more
quote unquote positive that these tend
to be emotions that uh produce more
resourceful behaviors and actions in
you the they're less
toxic they're less
damaging they lead to less negative fall
out okay so let's move on to the next
category which called
acceptance here you have emotions like
compassion
glowing can you remember what it feels
like to be
glowing
loving and playful
okay good so feel all
those be aware of all those
different uh
matrixes and lastly now we're going to
be moving to the last category which is
called
peace and this is a very interesting
category which most people don't even
think about when they think about
emotions but actually this is perhaps
the most powerful and important category
of all this is the place that you
ultimately want to get to with your
self-actualization so here they are
within peace you've got stuff like
awareness feeling
aware calm or
Tranquility feeling
complete
Freedom feeling
free
and feeling
centered very interesting category this
category of
Peace so there you have it you've got
like eight or 10 categories I don't know
how many that was um and just a sampling
remember this is a very small sampling
like a tip of the iceberg I could have
given you probably 50 and I'm not
exaggerating 50 emotions within each
category so there's a lot of them right
and they all have their own
subtle different tastes and flavors to
them almost like
food okay so now what do I want to say
about all this well I want to say that
emotions are both conscious and
unconscious you can be conscious and
very aware of what's going on in your
body and in your mind and you can label
it an emotion like anger or fear or
annoyance or peace or
whatever um but most of the time I would
say 98% of the time you're actually not
conscious of the emotions that are
coursing through your
body and this presents a problem so if
you want to really improve the quality
of your life then what you want to do is
you want to become more and more
conscious and aware of exactly what's
going on in your
body one of the problems that emotions
create is that we label emotions as
either good or
bad and actually what I want to submit
to you here is that emotions are neither
good nor bad and that in fact when you
label an emotion as good or bad this
gets you into a lot of trouble down the
road it might seem like something like
anger or fear or
jealousy or depression might be an
inherently bad and negative
emotion which creates inherent suffering
but actually that's not the case that's
an orientation that you've just accept
it as an assumption Without Really
questioning and looking into it when you
really look at what an emotion is all it
is is a sensation in your body and a
certain sensation in your mind that's
all it really is and no sensation is
inherently good or bad that's your mind
coming in there and starting to label
stuff starting to judge
stuff right um and so one of the things
that usually happens the way that we're
being run by our emotions unconsciously
is that some emotion is coursing through
our body we generally assume that this
emotion is created by some negative
external circumstance and then we think
that oh this emotion doesn't feel good
anymore so it's a bad emotion how do I
get rid of this emotion and then we just
have a knee-jerk reaction and we go do
something to get rid of this emotion and
we don't actually feel the emotion we
don't notice the the richness and
complexity of sensation and feeling that
exists
there and so because of this we really
are like a puppet that's being
controlled by some
Puppeteer um and we think that we're
conscious throughout this whole process
but actually we're not that's the whole
crazy thing about unconsciousness is
that unconsciousness doesn't feel like
unconsciousness because whatever little
sliver of Consciousness you have is all
you think that there is so if you're 1%
conscious and 90% 99% unconscious you
feel like you're 100% conscious which is
what gets most people into trouble right
because we already assume that we know
this stuff and which is why I want you
to go back and to actually take your
time and feel each one of those emotions
that I described earlier because what
you'll realize by doing that exercise is
oh I've never actually sat down and
fully felt what anger feels like or what
annoyance feels like I've never fully
realized what jealousy actually
is most of my life what I've done is
I've just run away from these feelings
or maybe I've run towards these
feelings generally the way emotions
function is that they're like carrots
and sticks either they cause you to
pursue something or they cause you to
avoid something and this is like a very
basic biological mechanism by which uh
this organism in the machine called the
body uh controls your behaviors so
emotions you might imagine them they're
kind of like
magnets right it's like a magnet that is
polarized and it pushes you away from
something or it pulls you towards
something
else and you know a magnetic field it's
not just like black and white it's got
like it's almost like a cloud of
magnetic field so if you're within you
know the cloud you get pulled a little
bit more a little bit more then you get
closer to the magnet you get pulled even
more and so that's kind of how emotions
work they're not these black and white
things so it's not that when you're
angry you necessarily have to go punch
someone in the face but you're certainly
much more likely to and so you kind of
gravitate towards that and when you're
depressed it's not necessarily the case
you're going to shoot yourself in the
head and uh commit suicide but you're
certainly much more likely to you're
kind of pulled in that
direction right and the same thing with
the Positive
emotions so um it's very interesting how
just how complex the human mind and
organism is and how these emotions are
like these magnetic poles that kind of
like guide you like imagine like you're
a fish swimming through a river and
you're like this fish that's made out of
metal and in the this River you've got
this torrent coming down at you but
you're going forward and then you've got
these um these different magnets
positioned in the river and you're kind
of moving towards one or moving away
from another and you're just kind of
like snaking your way through the river
well that's basically a pretty accurate
description of what your uh your life is
as a human
being uh an important thing to remember
and understand about emotions is that
really they're the language of the
unconscious and the subconscious
mind because there's a lot of stuff
that's happening in your body at every
uh millisecond of the day that you don't
need to be aware of and in fact if you
were consciously aware of all this stuff
it would probably fry your brain there's
a lot of stuff going on breathing
heartbeating
temperature control of your body of your
blood um you know your immune system is
fighting off pathogens and um your cells
are growing and rebuilding and there's a
lot of stuff happening there's a lot of
stuff that's being processing in your
brain unconsciously right you're
recognizing shapes and faces and people
you're remembering names and you don't
have any idea how this stuff is
happening well it's happening
unconsciously for you right and your
emotions are like a language that kind
of bridges the barrier between total
unconsciousness and then Consciousness
so it's kind of like the bridge and so
it's really helpful to learn how to
interpret and become more aware of your
emotions because your body's language
primarily is not logic it's not
rationality it's not linear thinking it
is emotions it's these vague fields of
emotions and
moods so um you can start to see why
it's so important to start to understand
the language of emotions it really is
like learning a
language um one question that comes up
when we start becoming more aware of
emotions is we start to ask questions
like well these these negative emotions
that we have are these emotions
necessary so if I'm feeling angry or
depressed does that mean that I can get
rid of those because I mean they're
creating certain behaviors aren't these
healthy emotions aren't these emotions
necessary for my
survival and see the interesting thing
is that your emotions are like a very
Baseline operating system which keeps
you alive and
surviving and the negative emotions are
very powerful and they're very strong
and they're extremely well tuned to
keeping you
alive so if all you want from your life
is to be alive then you can rely and
trust your emotions completely because
they'll do an extremely good job at
keeping you alive very very
good they'll also do an extremely good
job at making you
reproduce so notice that these are the
two functions that Evolution operates on
right natural
selection survival and reproduction so
in these domains you're going to do
great with emotions um you don't even
need to learn about emotions you'll
still do
great most animals do great this way and
most uh you know primitive cultures and
societies that don't label emotions or
whatever or don't even have a the study
of psychology they do fine just fine
they survive
great uh but if you want to take
yourself to the highest potential as a
human being if you want to
self-actualize if you want to thrive if
you want to accomplish great things that
most human beings are not able to
accomplish and if what you want is
fulfillment and deep lasting happiness
in your
life then you have to start to unwire
some of the more severe negative
emotional reactions that you
have why is that well because that whole
system is tuned just to your survival it
doesn't really care about your happiness
or
fulfillment so for example what it'll do
it it'll make you
worry and it'll make you nervous about
the most insignificant thing just
because that thing might potentially be
a survival threat now your conscious
mind knows better it knows that that
little thing is not really a survival
threat but see your kind of emotional
mind doesn't really understand that and
so what it sides on you know it airs on
the side of saying you know what we're
just going to interpret that thing as a
threat anyways and we're going to have
you react violently against it we're
going to have you worry and we're going
to have you get depressed and sad and
angry about that
thing but see you can't
really like build uh a happy positive
resourceful life from that kind of
situation so what you want to do
ultimately is you want to unwire that
stuff and build in
conscious healthy reactions all also you
want to transition yourself away from
the lower level categories of emotions
we talked about stuff like depression
anger and fear and into stuff that's
much more uh higher Consciousness like
peace and acceptance and creativity and
confidence and security and this kind of
stuff um so that's that's the
explanation of that also I think it's
very important that you start to realize
that the thing you really want the most
in your
life is the emotions of Peace acceptance
and
wholeness this might sound kind of Airy
fairy and uh new age and kind of
fruity uh but I guarantee that this is
what you really want in life you don't
want a bigger house you don't want uh a
sexier wife you don't want more money in
your bank account you don't really
want that new
promotion
what you really want is you want peace
acceptance and
wholeness because if you had these
emotions running through your body all
the time you would be on cloud n you
would be in heaven that's what heaven
is it's interesting though how Society
doesn't really tell you this it's also
interesting how it's very
counterintuitive you don't really
actively tell yourself that what you
really want in life is you want these
emotions here
instead you turn it into material
objects or you turn it into uh you know
promotions or you turn it into a a
better-looking body or whatever but you
don't really want those things you want
those things so that they get you peace
acceptance and
wholeness so um wouldn't it be nice to
recognize that and wouldn't it be nice
to chart a more direct course in your
life for getting these things rather
than the roundabout way that you go
about
now CU you waste a lot of time and
energy and money and resources going on
a
tangent rather than directly to your
emotional objectives and your objectives
are emotional notice that too so when
you tell yourself that you're not a very
emotional person well actually you are
because all your goals in life
ultimately are just pointing to these
emotions here which you
want what we're talking about here is
your entire motivational system in life
right this is huge this is so huge I
hope you can uh start to appreciate
this another question that comes up when
we start investigating emotions is can
emotions be
controlled and if so how do I control
them because it sure does sound
important that uh if there's a way to
control them then we want to develop
this
way well emotions are a tricky thing and
you really
can't control them directly and in fact
what is going on is that emotions are
controlling
you so see your conscious mind it's not
the primary thing it's the thing that
depends on everything else so your
conscious mind depends on a stable
emotional system so you don't have a
conscious mind without emotions emotions
come first they're the base they're the
foundation so um in a sense the
foundation controls what's above it it's
kind of backwards to have the thing on
top control the thing on
bottom you might say it's
unnatural but nevertheless you can
develop something like a pseudo control
over your emotions this is by not trying
to control them
directly and here we get into the
distinction between controlling your
emotions and
mindfulness
mindfulness is the key to emotional
control I have a video on mindfulness
you might want to watch that goes in
depth uh about how that works but here
what I'm going to tell you is that
basically the power of mindfulness is
simply that you just watch the emotion
and you don't try to control it at all
and very counterintuitively and
paradoxically what happens is that the
better you become at seeing exactly what
your emotions are
are the more aware the more conscious
you become then the less your emotions
dominate your awareness the L they
control you and you can get to such high
levels of mindfulness that basically
you're able to uh exert almost a
supernatural control over your emotions
but in fact all you're doing is you're
just looking at
them it's a very interesting and
counterintuitive uh technique
mindfulness is a whole field of study
you could spend the next 20 or 30 or 40
Years of your life practicing developing
mindfulness um but I'm just going to
give you a couple of uh quick ideas and
um couple of tips here so number one for
starting to develop mindfulness which by
the way if you haven't realized yet is
what we're doing in this video right by
getting you more awareness this already
is building mindfulness but you also
want to be practicing it in the moment
so the first thing you should do is you
should stop judging your emotions and
you should stop labeling them as good or
bad this is actually false emotions are
not good or
bad so mindfulness is about seeing
emotions as they
are and no emotion is good and bad in
itself and the other component of
mindfulness is to feel your emotions
physically through the body really take
the time maybe even close your eyes stop
yourself feel through it
this is very unorthodox we almost never
do
this because we usually are just
reacting to the emotion and if it's a
bad emotion we just want it to go away
it never occurs to us that we can just
stop and look at it and that looking at
it is the best way of managing
it uh in fact
this uh stopping and looking is so
unorthodox for you it's going to be so
unconventional that it's going to take
you a lot a lot a lot of practice years
of practice to retrain your brain from
just reaction to emotions and being able
to just
stop look at it feel it notice what's
going on in your mind and in your body
and don't try to control
it because what your mind's going to be
telling you is that wait a minute let me
try to control this if it's a bad
emotion I should control it and stop it
right that's the right thing to do or I
should guilt myself about it
and tell myself that oh it's a bad
emotion why am I having this bad emotion
I shouldn't be having a bad emotion
right now but see what this does is this
is just a reaction to the emotion which
just creates more emotions and it just
feeds into it and creates this uh
Cyclone of uh of emotions and so there's
no consciousness there no consciousness
at all even though it might feel like
you're trying to control stuff you're
really
not so in practice what's going to
happen is that you're going to forget
you're going to forget to practice
mindfulness you're going to forget to
stop and experience the emotion without
controlling it and you're going to do
this again and again and again and again
and again and again for a long long time
before you finally learn that you
actually need to
stop don't label it good or bad and just
feel it but you know what go ahead and
start
practicing practice makes perfect so I
recommend you start practicing now uh
because it'll take you a while to get
the hang of it and in fact what I want
to wrap up on here is I'm going to give
you an exercise I'm going to give you a
really handy exercise for how to
practice mindfulness the biggest problem
with mindfulness the reason people don't
develop it is simply because they forget
to practice it because it's so easy to
forget so here's the exercise for you
what I want you to do is I want you to
get get your smartphone on the phone I
want you to create an alarm this alarm
it'll be a whole series of alarms for an
entire week so what's going to happen
here is that you're going to create an
alarm that Rings three hours after you
normally wake up and then 3 hours after
that and then 3 hours after that and 3
hours after that and 3 hours after that
so it's going to ring five maybe six or
seven times depending how long you stay
awake um it's going to ring let's say
five times at least throughout your day
it's going to ring when this alarm rings
what I want you to do is I want you to
stop whatever you're doing I want you to
get a a special Journal you're going to
keep a little Journal um just for this
exercise and you're going to write down
EX exactly um uh what your emotion is in
the moment whatever it is if you're
pissed off and it's a very strong
emotion good feel that notice what's
going on in your body notice what's
going on in your mind first just take 30
seconds to notice it then actually write
down what you
discovered if you don't have a strong
emotion which will probably be the case
most times then write down whatever
emotion you do have you always have some
sort of emotion coursing through your
body even if it's just a very very
subtle emotion and maybe all you're
feeling right now is just
um you're feeling comfortable or maybe
you're feeling a little
uneasy or maybe you're feeling a little
bit annoyed just you know a little bit
whatever it is feel it notice it and
then write it down and you're going to
do this for a whole week so it's going
to be seven straight days of this alarm
going
off um and that's it at the end of this
week what you're going to notice if you
do this
exercise as I told you and you don't
slack off on it you'll notice that
you've developed uh a lot of emotional
awareness which wasn't there before and
what I encourage you to do from that
point on is just to continue with the
process even if you don't use an alarm
anymore I want you to continue with the
process of feeling into the
emotion getting curious about what the
emotion actually is not trying to
control anything and ideally writing
stuffff that stuff down in a journal or
in a diary so that you're um you're
forcing yourself to use language to
clarify add Precision to your awareness
what this does is this builds
awareness and when you develop more
awareness you develop higher EQ and when
you develop higher EQ you start to
master your emotions and when you start
to master your emotions you start to
master your whole
life how's that how's that come in Full
Circle all right so what are we doing
here with a.org we're helping you to
master your life how do we do that by
mastering your psychology and how do we
do that well a big chunk of it is
mastering your emotions so go ahead and
take this exercise very seriously do it
religiously and you'll see some cool
results all right this is Leo I'm
signing off post me your comments down
below click the like button please share
this video with a friend and finally
comment sign up to the actualized.org
newsletter right here it's a free
newsletter when you sign up you get
weekly free videos that I'm releasing
all the time and my whole mission in
life is to research and find the most
powerful Concepts and mindsets and
principles that I can discover and that
other people have discovered that are um
much more uh uh studied and smarter than
I am I want to bring those to you and
show you how to apply them practically
in your life life No Nonsense no
[Β __Β ] so that you can start creating
all the things that you're struggling to
create and all that will then lead to
creating that extraordinary life which
you know you want but you also know that
you struggle so hard to get so if you're
down with that follow every single week
you don't want to just watch one video
you want to keep up with it turn it into
a practice turn it into like a little
mini hobby I want to turn you like into
a self-help junkie here because I know
that if you develop a hobby out of this
just in a couple of years your whole
life is going to start to transform in
unimaginable ways which will be one of
the most rewarding things that you've
ever experienced in life so I want to
share that with you I want to see you
experience that for yourself sign up
right
now
Browse More Related Video
Mindfulness Meditation - A Complete Guide With Techniques & Examples
how to MASTER your emotions | emotional intelligence
The Pioneer of "Emotional Intelligence" Daniel Goleman on a Balanced Life
SΓNDICO - Apresente-se sem medo na assembleia | Prof. Odimar Manoel
Unlimited Power - Harnessing Sexual energy
Therapist Explains Why You Don't Feel Anything Anymore... (Alexithymia 101)
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)