A Little More on Feelings and Emotions

Many people are out of touch with their feelings, their true feelings.  Many more are run by their feelings and at the mercy of their feelings.
Feelings connect us to ourselves, to others, to life.  They are very important but it’s essential to be in charge of your feelings and to learn to master them.  This takes understanding and practice.
Feelings like to get rattled and often intense and you need to use your mind to analyse your feelings and take charge of them.
In the book “Ask and it is Given”, Esther and Jerry Hicks outlined the main higher spectrum of feelings as well as the main lower spectrum of feelings.  I have found these very helpful in becoming aware of what’s happening at the level of my feelings.
The higher spectrum of feelings are joy, love, appreciation, gratitude, faith, trust, passion, eagerness, enthusiasm, happiness, positive expectations/belief, optimism, hopefulness and contentment.
These are the feelings we want to cultivate and experience more and more of.  They uplift and motivate us and bring out the best in us.
The lower spectrum of feelings are listed as boredom, pessimism, frustration, irritation, impatience, overwhelm, disappointment, doubt, worry, blame, discouragement, anger, revenge, hatred/rage, jealousy, insecurity/guilt/unworthiness, fear, grief, depression, despair, powerlessness.
It’s really helpful to get to know this list of feelings because it helps you to understand more where you might be caught.  This helps you to trace back the negative feeling to the thoughts causing the negative feeling. Then you have the choice to move your focus to the higher spectrum of feelings and to create these.  It is really powerful to do this consistently in your day-to-day life but you really need to practise it if you want results.
I repeat the higher spectrum of feelings over to myself very consciously as part of my morning ritual so as to keep my mind on these and on what I want to focus on and create in my day.
Many believe that negative feelings are natural and you must express them, get them out there.  Take the TV “Soaps” as an example.  They are all about drama and people working out their negative feelings on other people.  This is faulty thinking [no judgement just discernment in this]. All you need to do is reflect on this and see how it changes nothing, often makes things worse and certainly doesn’t contribute to growth and love and peace.
Do people generally believe that negative feelings are to be expected – that’s life?  It makes a real difference to get to know the higher and lower spectrum of feelings and to realise that the higher spectrum is where we can live most and even all of the time, if that’s what we truly want and work toward. 
Negative feelings are best handled by acknowledging them, taking full responsibility for them as yours and analysing them to understand the thoughts and beliefs you have that are causing these.  Always doing this with love and forgiveness and a sense of well done to yourself for taking responsibility and being determined to learn and grow.  The rewards are mighty!
Each of us has the choice to forgive or hold a grudge; to react to things, fight them, struggle against them or to stay calm and respond; to be insecure, anxious and self-doubting or to have self confidence; to compare and compete or to cooperate and work together with others, wishing the best for everyone.
Be aware of the power in you to create love, peace, friendship, harmony within yourself and in your relationships with others.  Be conscious of what you are creating within and in any given situation or with any other person.