How would your life change if every emotion you ever had weren’t good or bad, but just energy that you could use to get more of what you wanted? What if the amount of energy only depended on the intensity of the emotion? And what if what you used to call a bad experience that evoked a “negative” emotion could be used in the same way as a “good” experience?
Let’s take an example. What happens when the phone rings and, when you answer, you hear the voice of a dear old friend, warmly greeting you and expressing his joy in finally having reached you?
You would feel great, right? And maybe you would start to let all the pleasant images pass through your mind of the time you had spent together.
Now, what, on the other hand, — until NOW – happened, when the person on the other end of the phone was a nasty person from the bank informing you that you’re account was overdrawn (again) and you really need to learn some basic accounting skills or a nasty client or your boss in a bad mood?
Not too many happy images, right?
Here’s the fun part. Now you’re going to pretend that you can choose to look at that undesired event and the associated emotion as being no different in value from the desired event as far as being good or bad.
Let go of good and bad. These kinds of judgments are the friction in our otherwise frictionless world of just doing what we do.
You can use the energy in any way you want, or you can just let go of it. The more intense an emotion is, the more energy it will contain and the farther it can take you if you let it.
Since there’s energy in the emotion, we don’t want to waste it by suppressing, denying or ignoring it. We want to use it. So what you want to do is to REDIRECT the energy of the emotion so that it moves in the direction of your desires.
Here’s the procedure:
1) Identify the trigger: As you go through the rest of your day, watch for any event that triggers an uncomfortable and/or undesired emotion. Think of it as just a game to pass the time, as if you were sitting in a shopping center or in a park and the goal were to find everyone who is wearing a blue shirt. Except in this game, you are looking for unpleasant and undesired thoughts.
2) Focus and Intensify: When you come across an unpleasant thought, whether it was triggered by an external or internal event, describe to yourself exactly what it is that you don’t like about it. Say it out loud, if possible. Imagine you are looking at the feeling as if you were looking at the moon through a telescope. As you turn the focus wheel you see if become clearer and more intense, and then less intense once it has gone back out of focus. Adjust it so that the feeling is clearest and the most intense. Clearly identifying the triggered emotion will make redirecting the energy easier.
3) Create a New Direction: Now imagine what you would like to be doing in that moment. Totally let go of the triggering image and vividly imagine yourself doing what you would like to be doing. Let yourself enjoy the activity in your mind and feel how the excitement and enthusiasm for this activity relaxes and energizes you. See yourself striving, succeeding and feeling great about it. Make sure you see moving images and that they are as detailed as possible.
4) Redirect and intensify: Now imagine the energy of the undesired emotion transforming into a boomerang which you’re holding in your hand. The boomerang is not heavy, but it has a very solid and substantial presence in your hand. Take the boomerang and throw it away from you as hard as you can. As it moves away, feel the unpleasant emotion growing weaker and weaker until it disappears. After the negative feeling has completely vanished, watch the boomerang swing around and come back towards you. As it approaches it becomes brighter and more intense. The feeling is positive now and long before it reaches you, you sense the glow of power it adds to your immediate goal that you visualized just a few moments ago. When it reaches your hand and you grasp the boomerang now energized with the positive energy of your desire and intensified by the new energy of a previously unpleasant emotion, feel the positive energy as it flows down your arm and into the rest of your body.
5) Ride the wave: Free from unhappy, unpleasant, annoying and/or limiting feelings, seize the moment to ride the increased positive energy like a beam of light as you move in the direction of your immediate desire as defined in the new direction you visualized. Use the enhanced clarity of purpose and increased momentum to accomplish your goal as quickly as possible. And then move on to the next.
Instead of fearing being ambushed by bad feeling or experiences, this method of dealing with your emotions can empower you look forward to positive and well as negative emotions and events. It takes some practice, patience and persistence, but I’m sure you’ll agree that the benefits are well worth the effort.
As always, this blog is hungry for comments. Try this out and let me know how it works for you. Take a moment to give me your thoughts below in the comments section.
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