The Garden of Emotion

Gary van Warmerdam does frequent podcasts as well as blog posting on emotions, self-awareness, and beliefs based on emotional impeccability. Just like most of us, he is a normal person, with normal feelings. I am not certain if he has a Ph D. in any matters involving psychology but, he is a source that has gained variable ranges of knowledge through self awareness. He has gained this knowledge through the help of a mentor.

One of his latest articles I found particularly interesting called Emotional Reactions involved a podcast as well as a blog. The focus of the article was based that any emotion that is derived from a reaction stems another emotion. I believe this to be true. This is actually a very important thing to realize. If you are sewing something and poke your finger you will be upset you poked your finger and maybe distressed because you are in pain. From there, because you are distressed, you may be cranky or short with people and become impatient and so you just continue to build on the negativity. "In this case you will then have an emotion about an emotion." Gary calls this an emotional garden. According to Gary, people want to seed positive emotions and be free from emotional suffering. In his experience, he has found that expecting the positive emotions to become immediately present just tend to lead to more negative emotions such as frustration and anger. By weeding out emotions without being aware of what he calls an "emotional field" that everyone has, you will be subject to a numbness of emotion. I believe this is true and it is interesting to me that a lot of people these days tend to weed out rather than confront their emotions.

My parents are a prime example. They have been divorced for a couple years and one is engaged, the other is remarried. Both of them have no idea how to handle each other emotionally other than by anger. As a result, my dad is content but still in love with my mom. My mom has had trouble emotionally dealing with any other suitor, including her new fiance'. Gary thinks "by becoming aware of this emotional field, you will be able to plant the deep roots that it takes to gain happiness and slowly rid your "self" of emotional distress." I am a firm believer in confronting your emotions. Some personal experiences have led me to use this practice but unlike him, while he uses a mentor, I use myself. I have learned to confront my emotions by myself and it has helped me in a positive way. My life has become more positive because of it. Because I can relate, I found this article to be interesting and I completely agree with Gary.

Like Yawning, Moods are Contagious

In a blog posted by psychologist Dr. Deb, she brings across a good point in he rarticle called "Contagiousness of moods," that you can find yourself in a mood based on your surrounding environment. For example, if you are around a lot of people that are in the worst mood, even if you walked in a happy individual, more than likely you are going to leave feeling just as crabby as the people that you were around and you may not even know why. Dr. Deb also emphasises an example from Orson Welles making a broadcast of "War of the Worlds" which sent listeners into a panic attack thinking that Earth was going to be blown to smitherenes by aliens. Dr. Deb states that people read subtle clues in body language which trigger responses in the people they come into contact with. I believe that this is true, and most people are unaware of these signals that may trigger them to feel a certain way.

Where self-awareness is concerned, I tend to find that most of the reactions that people inhibit are purely based on the subconscious. Even though some physical aspects of a situation may trigger certain responses, most of the responses that are going to come forth are conditioned responses. These are responses that have been learned over exposure to the same situation for a given amount of time. Dr. Deb seems to think that most moods are contagious. I will have to agree. If you put yourself in a negative situation, more likely you will lose sight of the lighter-hearted aspect of things. In order to realize that you have "caught a mood," you will have to do an internal check according to Dr. Deb, and evaluate the situation and the mood that you find yourself in. By becoming more aware of your surroundings and the factors that are triggering your positive or negative responses to the situations and the moods that you find yourself and others in, you will become more aware of your self and be able to recognize the contageniety of your mood.

It's Alive!!!

In the words of the doctor who created Frankenstein... IT'S ALIVE!!! Hopefully this blog works and we'll have a quick and fun semester.. one more closer to graduation!