EXPLORE THE STORY OF YOUR EMOTIONS 

Supplies:  box or container with a lid, paper, pen or pencil, colored markers, paint and/or collage materials

I Have Emotions But I am Not My Emotions

It’s important to remember that your emotions are not in control of you.  A a willful chooser of conscious awareness, you are in control of your emotions.  The process works like this:  When you do something of your own free will, you are in a cognitive state of consciousness.  Your are thinking and you are focused.  To be in focus does not mean you must be consistently engaged in problem solving.  This means you must know what your mind is doing.  When you conscientiously maintain a policy of mental focus, of thinking things through, you will know what you are doing and why.  

This process brings an increased knowledge of self and a sense of control over your existence.  As you open up your mind and senses to what is presented around you, things become clear.  When you address what is, detach, and take a breath, a sense of freedom arises.  This allows you to make decisions and pay attention to opportunities.  

In his book, The New Earth, Eckhart Tolls posits, “As long as you are unable to access the power of the now, every emotional pain that you experience leaves behind a residue of pain that lives on in you”.  Negative emotions develop in your formative years.  When hurt, neglect, betrayal and other painful memories become stuck in the body, they stay with you long after the event.  As a consequence, your emotions never “grow up”.  These negative emotions can be released in constructive ways by admitting to your feelings without shame.  Listening to and remembering painful events where you repressed your emotions will free you up and increase your self-esteem.  Your emotions respond to what you contemplate.

Why do you hide your emotional pain from yourself?  Why do you hide your pain from others?  Hiding behind a mask doesn’t reflect the powerful being that your are.

Your ego is made up of the painful rejected parts that keep love out.  Your lower self or ego has given itself the job of protecting you because the ego does not trust in love.  The sad part of the story is that, rather than protect, the ego brings pain, isolation and places armor around your heart.  The armor keeps love out and the untrue negative emotions cover up what love that is left.  

At your center, you know only pure, unconditional love.  When you are in your center, you understand your emotions.  You understand others and you love unconditionally.  When this happens, you embody your authentic self and things begin to flow.  This is because you have unblocked your emotional defenses.  

Your emotions affect not only the way others treat you, but your inner sense of well-being.  Whether or not you experience positive or negative emotions is a choice.  Emotions come from within.  They do not reflect forces outside our control.  Remember:  the key is to acknowledge your emotions but not to give them free reign.  Psychiatrist, Aaron Beck teaches that your thoughts alone can produce your emotions.  Beck’s studies posit that a negatively framed automatic thought is an unconscious belief that focuses on your weaknesses rather than your strengths.  Albert Ellis, rational-emotive psychologist, says that it is through challenging your thoughts and beliefs about yourself that you can change your emotional reactions.  Once you start to pick apart the illogical basis for your emotions, you can change your emotional reactions.  

The first step in managing your emotions is to identify what you are feeling and to ask the feeling what the message is.  Then you ask yourself what you can do to solve the situation.  Take the time to notice your emotional responses and consider what is behind them.  Consider which thoughts result in positive emotion and which thoughts produce negative reactions.  Be aware of your emotional response and understand what might be behind that response.

CREATE A “SAFE PLACE” FOR YOUR EMOTIONS. 

Tip!  Use art supplies that make you happy when you decorate your box/container/vessel.

Maybe you like to cut and paste.  If so, collage pictures and shapes on your box.  Or, you can paint designs and add sparkles.  You have artistic license to make the box your own.

1. Take some time to center yourself and thing about things that make you happy.
2. Ask yourself what colors and shapes come to mind when you think about your happy feelings.
3. Decorate a box or container with your happy colors and shapes.
4. Take some time to center yourself once again and think about personal emotions or feelings that may be holding you back.
5. Write one of these emotions on a piece of paper.  Your choice of words are personal to your life experiences.  
6. On the other side of this piece of paper, write a word that means the opposite (an antonym) of that emotion.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 as many times as you want.
8. Place the papers that list your emotions in your box to keep them safe. 
9. Take a paper out of your box whenever you feel the need.  

TIP!

CHANGE YOUR THOUGHTS, CHANGE YOUR LIFE.  - Wayne Dyer

Challenge

Think about this quote while you contemplate the emotions in your box:

Our regular thoughts create our beliefs.

And, our beliefs draw our current life circumstances towards us.

Appreciating our life for the way it is showing up and at the same time, practicing a higher quality of being creates a richer experience of the present moment. - Shelley Klammer (Expressive Art Therapist)