126. The Popularity Of Intellectualizing Emotions
Intellectualizing emotions has gotten pretty popular as of late, and I get it. First of all, we’ve come a long way in diagnosing mental illness, as well as supporting others with their feelings and emotions. And this is great. Not only is it great, but much needed.
On top of that, we’re starting to connect our behaviors to other things. These could be positive experiences that we’ve had, but most often times, negative. In fact, it’s almost always negative. We always seem to talk about our result from trauma, but we never seem to talk about our result from positive experiences. While I understand that sometimes we go through a substantial amount of negative experiences, why are we being so one-sided. And theoretically, wouldn’t an abundance of positive experiences actually work to undo these issues?
Regardless of this fact, we’ve become hyper-vigilant in regards to our behaviors and where they stem from. But first I want to take a step back. We as a society often times feel that negative experiences are just that… negative. And we put ourselves in a position where we feel that other people are not dealign with negative issues, or to the extent that we are. And while that may be true, we often times lack personal responsibility as well as the understanding as to why these negative experiences may be happening to us. Not even getting into our incarnation, often times our negative experiences propel us on a path that we’re supposed to be leading. It allows us to have shared experiences and empathy with others. It inspires us, and motivates us. While at times, we can’t see how this could possibly e a positive thing or a light at the end of the tunnel, when we look back at these experiences, hopefully we can see how they have a place.
So what happens when we deduce all of our behaviors to negative experiences and traumas? While I find that in some ways this can be helpful, as as a society we are starting to do backtracking as well as “web” work, which is in my opinion, a spiritual concept. It falls under the concept that we are all one and that our behaviors are not just the result of one thing, but of many. We are able to connect the dots so to speak in order to conceptualize our issues. Or in particular, backtrack physical or mental/emotional issues to a spiritual cause.
The issue with this is that we are not just what we are in this particular lifetime. We have an oversoul, past, future and parallel lives. All of these things are working with us to “create” the person that we are. On top of that, we’re heavily influenced by environmental factors. To say that we are because of what we’ve experienced in this lifetime is way too simplistic.
So while I don’t feel that deducing behavior is inherently bad, and I think that it brings about some positive ideas, I don’t like that it’s specifically used to shift responsibility as well as only look at things from a negative perspective. We should remain open-minded to anything and everything which could be contributing to our “loops” and negative behaviors. Ultimately, our traumas and our behaviors are obviously connected, as we are one person, nut sometimes incredibly separate when it comes to healing. Yes, as we meditate and reflect on our memories, we can transmute this, but often times to actually move forward and heal ourselves, it takes a lot more than simply removing an old memory. And as a result of this, simply tracing it back to a root source isn’t entirely helpful. It may be ultimately validating or insightful, but it can sort of be limiting as well. Imagine if we had inherited traumas that we had no idea about. Perhaps we completely lost our memory of our earlier life. Would knowing this information ultimately actually inhibit our growth? Because it would be a constant reminder and perhaps even an energetic crutch to rely on, or an excuse as to why we can’t move forward? And perhaps the memories of it in general just inhibit us. It’s interesting to think about.
We are largely sensitive due to past experiences and trauma, and it’s of course valid. But I hope that all of us can come to a recognition that it’s our duty as humans to transmute old, negative and stagnant energy. What has happened to us does not have any bearing on who we are as a person. It’s just… what we’ve experienced. I find it’s best to separate negative experiences. While we often times need to process them internally, again, they do not dictate who we are, or who we are meant to be. And in the grand scheme of our infinite lives, they are ultimately just a blip on the radar. I recommend using your pain in order to help others heal through inspiration, sharing and even group. or individual therapy. It’s likely that what you have experienced is not exclusive to you. It’s likely that many around you or many before you have experienced it as well. And there are certainly enough role models in the world to know that it is possible to heal, move on and move forward.
