“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Albert Einstein
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by his ability to climb a tree, it will live it’s whole life believing it is stupid.” Albert Einstein
Everyone has some sensitivity to certain situations. We all have those moments when either the floodgates open up or we contain the explosion within barely being able to speak. What triggers these emotions varies from person to person, and experience to experience. There are sensitive subjects each one of us may respond to. There are those individuals who respond to every hurt, as if they were a magnet unable to keep it away. Others appear to bounce off the pains, but none of us know how others deal with their pain, in the privacy of their own homes.
It might appear we are the only ones, taking the hits of emotional stress. The trouble is we all can hide it so well. Some of us attempt to hide it by wearing our glasses, or going to the bathroom, or changing the subject. Some people laugh about emotional states, while quietly cry on the inside. With practice we get better. We prevent others from knowing the truth about our sentiments.
I am not sure this is a good thing. Now we become an open target for others to strike at. All impressionable people, likely are targets, throughout their lifetimes. I question why we do this. By pretending nothing emotional bothers us, we leave ourselves open to a multitude of strikes, from close relatives to strangers. I know I used to believe that any display of passion, made one appear weak. Nobody wants a weak person as a leader. Nobody wants the captain of a team to be weak. Nobody wants an indecisive person running things, when hard decisions must be made.
The more reflection I gave to this matter, the more I realized that our hidden emotional sentiments, were influencing our thoughts, words, actions and stress. By considering our thoughts and words, everyone’s emotional-states remain intact. That appeared to be awesome to me. It isn’t compromising as much as it is accounting for people’s desires and their emotional well-being.
It takes more work to incorporate all of the facets of a situation. If a person is losing their home, due to a government right of domain, in order to consider all of the possible outcomes, one must understand all of the profound consequences, the decision will impact. Without the emotional burden, the decision is easy. I now know this process of incorporating sympathies into the equation is higher thinking not weakness.
When kids are babies and toddlers we encourage them to share and not take another’s toys. As they mature and go to school we begin offering rewards for good behavior. We all do it even if we are unaware. We offer a play date, or a tv show. As kids mature we instill consequences for their poor behavior. At full maturity, we have honestly been successful, when a young adult does the right thing because it is the correct thing to do. They are doing what is right even when no one is watching, there is no reward, there are no consequences if they decide not to do it, and they don’t have to do it. We all hope to get our kids to this point. Yet many adults are still not at that point in their lives and perhaps never will be.
Feelings are a part of this comprehension of right and wrong. Emotions take one out of self and into human awareness. In a sense it fosters sentiments, sensations, and a responsive awareness of caring. We do need to accept the fact that if our own feelings are easily injured, then it requires us to be insightful regarding the emotional vulnerability of others. Accept the fact that responsive awareness for compassion towards all, is something that should mature along with the body and mind. Because empathy has been downplayed so much, we discourage it’s display, and stunt it’s growth. By doing so we have eliminated the manifesting of a vital part of ourselves, that gives us more input about the world around us.
Feelings are important and they do count more than we can imagine. Society would function better if feelings were to enter freely. Compassion for others would perhaps bring more altruism to the world. I would never discourage feelings at any age. They are not embarrassing. They are an outpouring of instinct, awareness and response to the emotional state of self or others. They should be developed, not hidden and repressed. They show us another dimension of our world, that is positive, honest and filled with warmth.
“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires, and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in it’s beauty.” Albert Einstein
