So, how do we tend well to our emotional health, well-being, balance and maturity?
To start with, we make a commitment to be conscious of our
emotions and our emotional well-being every day. Second, we
stop intellectualizing our emotions. So many of us have trained
ourselves to "think our feelings," we've lost touch with authentically feeling our feelings.
Thirdly, we stop denying reality, even in the ways in which we speak
about this issue. This is not about our "emotional intelligence." That's
a politically correct phrase people use to obfuscate the truth. It's
about our emotional maturity. We have neglected our overall
emotional well-being and as a result many of us have not truly
emotionally matured. And it is impacting us, profoundly.
Lastly, we stop giving our time, energy, and attention to people and
experiences that don't serve our emotional well-being. From reality TV
and celebrity obsession, to Facebook and Glenn Beck, we have created
a society chock full of emotionally manipulative personalities, habits,
and gadgets that do not support our emotional balance, growth or
maturity.
Some would pooh-pooh this whole conversation. Many believe
emotions are "bad," incidental, a sign of weakness...an unnecessary
aspect of ourselves that we must master, manipulate, control,
or ignore.
But, what about love? What about passion, courage, innocence,
ecstasy, peace, and joy? These too, are emotions; as President
Obama remarked in his speech in Tucson on Wednesday, what
matters most is "how well we have loved."
I am here to let you know that your emotional well-being
is essential; and if you neglect it, it will wreak havoc with
your life.
I won't defend this assertion, I don't need to. I will simply give you
some powerful examples: *Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer, John Edwards,
Martha Stewart, Mark Sanford, Bernie Madoff, Tom DeLay...and the
list goes on. These are all eminently successful, healthy, wealthy,
well-educated, individuals...who risked everything.
Whether it was sex, money, love - or all of the above - these
intelligent, successful people risked everything...everything.
The only thing on God's green earth that would "make you" risk
everything...is your emotions. When your "emotional body" is
imbalanced, unhealthy, repressed, or neglected...it will circumvent
everything else. It will demand your attention, it will impact your
physical body, it will even hijack your seemingly intelligent mind into
believing that the risk you are about to take is not a risk at all.
It will con you into believing you are "smarter," or "better," or "you
deserve X," or "you are justified to do "Y"," etc. Or, the best con
of all..."they'll never find out." All the people listed above sincerely
believed that.
This is what the neglect of your emotions can do. Emotions are
important, critical - integral - to your health, your well-being, your
happiness, and to your authentic maturity as a human being.
Emotions are key to your evolution.
We'll pick up on this note and follow through, as promised, with
"being more of you & changing the world," next time...
*(Disclaimer: I apologize that the people listed above are mostly men, but these
are the most highly publicized examples; it's not meant to be sexist or biased in
any way!)
For more about the concepts expressed in this email message, go to "why?"
and " being™ more of you: I'm a thinking person, but I tend to get caught
up in the analysis..." and "Addiction Nation: we're all addicts," at www.kellygracesmith.com)
