Why Are Emotions so Handicapping?

[PepperBlossoms]

Emotions can be like a handicap - they can be so strong that we can't ignore them in a similar way to headache, backache, dizzyness, cramps, etc.

It is like there is an overload of signals and stimulation kinda like in the same way when there is too much noise or touch is too ticklish - our senses feel maxed out and we feel like we can't handle it.

Our reality may be experienced through the lens of that emotion - when we feel sad, things look and seem sad too: the sad stuff becomes the music, friendships, work potentials, reality itself, etc.  We associate the emotion with everything kinda like looking for synchronicity.  We are looking at everything through that lens.  Like when we think someone is delusional, we are going to be looking for all the ways they are delusional to justify that.  it is like black and white thinking but with emotion.  We are forgetting to make nuance to the situation in that the emotion of say sadness is not the only way to describe something.  Like one is so attached to one perspective/filter/lens and is having trouble detaching from that.

It is like when we are sad/angry, there is a loss, regret, unacceptance, rejection, survival depletion, feeling stuck, etc.

Another way for reality to experience itself.  Because we know what it is like to not experience it and so when we do it seems handicapping in comparison.  Because the body is not functioning at its best when it is feeling intense emotions in the same way an injured person's body is not functioning at its best.

Our thinking process gets impaired in the same way a sick person's movement may get impaired.  It is kinda like we are sick in a way.

Because we let them be.  Because we imagine that they have to be handicapping and imagine the situation to be the same as the emotion.

Because we tend to look for stuff based on what we are already trying to look for.... But why are we trying in the first place and why did we decide to look for it/at it in that way???  We see what we want to see.............

We don't know how to handle them and we don't know how to make them stop/go away.

We are obsessing.  We are trying to process/react to the situation and it just so happens to be in an emotional way.  We have passion for life and because of that, we have passionate reactions...

The emotion feels like hell and we think it is going to last forever and do not at the moment have enough nuance/observation/skills to be able to do anything other than sit in the emotion until those nuances/observations/skills come and free us and save the day like superman.

WHAT do you think??

Edited February 28, 2022 by PepperBlossoms

[PepperBlossoms]

Final answer...

The body is not functioning fully and we have to fix it but to do that requires sitting in the emotion which will go through lots of thoughts and ideas and eventually we will be able to recontextualize/think about the situation different/change the situation to where the situation that got us to have the emotion the first place no longer appears the same anymore and so we no longer feel the same about it.... ah ha!!  Meh it may not be that but that sounds good enough haha.  It is like a builder who has to put broken furniture back together BUT they have to put it back in a different way from the original way it was made because the original way broke (got emotional)

[Tristan12]

Emotions are crucial pieces of information for your overall functioning and survival so they need to be strong and handicapping for them to be able to convey their message properly. If you could just easily brush off fear when getting chased by a bear in the woods for example, you would be dead.

Of course it can feel like they are overpowering in unnecessary situations, and like they are a lot more painful than they need to be, but that just comes from blocked emotions deep within you created from trauma that need to be released. In a fully balanced psyche where all the emotions are integrated and functioning in a healthy way, emotions will only ever be as overpowering as they need to be and they end up being a huge asset to your survival and overall wellbeing.

[PepperBlossoms]

@Tristan12 Nice answer!  How is the body/us deciding what is crucial pieces of information and what is not though?  Some stuff we could have no reaction at all to and it was super crucial and we weren't taking it seriously and it was having a bad impact on our survival.  I guess this goes into the topic of - why do we have emotions in the first place?

Also, to add to my previous answer - like how a broken chair doesn't fix itself, an emotion won't just fix itself and we can't just ignore it.  The longer we ignore it, the longer we are handicapped.  We are handicapped because we are not actively trying to do things to address/fix it to get the emotion to go away and be resolved and maybe we don't have the habit/skills for doing so.  It also could be that we are somewhat enjoying this messy emotion because it is a different experience (hopefully) from our normal experience and so we may sit in it longer than we have to to get to explore it some more.

Edited February 28, 2022 by PepperBlossoms

[PepperBlossoms]

34 minutes ago, Tristan12 said:

Of course it can feel like they are overpowering in unnecessary situations, and like they are a lot more painful than they need to be, but that just comes from blocked emotions deep within you created from trauma that need to be released. 

Can you elaborate some more on this?

[Spence94]

They are not ‘your' emotions, the emotions are happening within awareness. They will come, they will pass. Once you realize there is no “I" in control and no "I" doing the observing then you are more free to invite the emotions in to your experience to be worked with. Mindfulness and observation becomes easier, self therapy and trauma release work becomes easier. So long as you are deeply attached to yoursense of personhood and story, even the emotions that are 4/10 on the richter scale could feel overbearing and like you have 'lost' 'your' observation/midfulness skills. Once you loosen up and wake up, then you can do the work much more effectivley.

[Tristan12]

2 hours ago, PepperBlossoms said:

Nice answer!  How is the body/us deciding what is crucial pieces of information and what is not though?  Some stuff we could have no reaction at all to and it was super crucial and we weren't taking it seriously and it was having a bad impact on our survival.  I guess this goes into the topic of - why do we have emotions in the first place?

Emotions are just messengers - they are information, but they work much differently than the thinking type of information. You understand things at a much deeper level through feeling. Emotions are just a result of your perceptions/thoughts. Whatever you perceive to be going on in your present experience is what your emotions will react to. If there is something that is affecting your survival but you're not taking it seriously, such as unhealthy eating, that probably just comes from how you're perceiving it and your beliefs about that thing, which can come from a whole bunch of different reasons.

2 hours ago, PepperBlossoms said:

Also, to add to my previous answer - like how a broken chair doesn't fix itself, an emotion won't just fix itself and we can't just ignore it.  The longer we ignore it, the longer we are handicapped.  We are handicapped because we are not actively trying to do things to address/fix it to get the emotion to go away and be resolved and maybe we don't have the habit/skills for doing so.  It also could be that we are somewhat enjoying this messy emotion because it is a different experience (hopefully) from our normal experience and so we may sit in it longer than we have to to get to explore it some more.

Try not to think of an emotion as needing to be fixed - I know you just mean for the emotion to go away or change state, but there is nothing wrong with the emotion, and every emotion good or bad has its purpose, so there is nothing that needs to be fixed, and you should try not to think of it that way. 

Because emotions are messengers, if you allow yourself to fully feel and surrender to the emotion without needing it to change, that is how you receive its feeling-based message, and once that message is received, the emotion will naturally resolve or change state as it is no longer needed. You don't need to change something externally to get the emotion to change, although that can work, the more direct way is to listen to the emotion directly and receive its message and it will naturally go away on its own.

2 hours ago, PepperBlossoms said:

3 hours ago, Tristan12 said:

Of course it can feel like they are overpowering in unnecessary situations, and like they are a lot more painful than they need to be, but that just comes from blocked emotions deep within you created from trauma that need to be released. 

Can you elaborate some more on this?

Dissociative trauma happens when an emotion from a traumatic experience gets so strong that your mind can't handle it and your consciousness fragments itself and basically breaks that emotion off of itself by making it unconscious with the hopes that it can be revisited at a later date and processed and integrated. This is necessary for your survival in the moment of trauma to allow you to cope if the emotion gets intense enough.

This severity of trauma rarely happens in adulthood, but it is very common in childhood and all of us go through it to some extent, because children can't process their negative emotions on their own, so if they don't have a loving caregiver there to help them through it, they will fragment and break off that part of themselves as they have no other way  of dealing with it.

When an emotion gets fragmented through trauma, it basically gets stuck in the moment of trauma, in that heightened emotional state, and then it continues to live inside you in that state until it is revisited and a later date and released (which barely anyone in society knows how to do today, even therapists, not at the depth that's necessary). This is the core cause of all mental health issues and emotional dysfunctions. Parts of yourself are stuck in a traumatized state, and so of course they react in extreme ways to things that seem to not be a big deal. This is why you have emotions that seem unnecessarily strong and overbearing. The reality is, every emotion you feel is completely valid, but you don't always see why or where its coming from.

A perfect example of this is self-worth issues. Shame is an emotion that can only be brought up in childhood. if you feel it as an adult, you are holding on to blocked shame from the past. A part of you is stuck in shame from a time where you felt shame in your childhood, and it lives inside you, and that is what creates self-worth issues. To heal self-worth issues at the core, all you need to do is process and released your blocked shame.

[Raze]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD1ny_Q8sKo

 

[Gesundheit2]

Just like most thoughts, most emotions are useless.

[Cathal]

@PepperBlossoms 

lack of emotional intelligence causes emotions to fuck you hard, that's when your emotions turn against you 

sweetness and love and joy and happiness - you don't even think about it, you just are it, you become the activity - and you want to spread it to others, naturally, everyone is like that

but when you avoid, run, judge, escape, push away other emotions or fundamentally believe it's right and wrong to feel certain things, you will trap yourself in misery for suresy

[Spence94]

On 04/03/2022 at 1:25 AM, Gesundheit2 said:

Just like most thoughts, most emotions are useless.

@Gesundheit2 Word.