Our feelings and emotions are our greatest teachers. Sometimes we act as victims of our feelings and emotions as if they are fabricated out of thin air. They are not! All of our feelings are the result of our thoughts. A thought produces a feeling, a feeling becomes a belief, a belief generates a behavior, and our behavior IS our life. By changing a thought, we are changing a life.
We are typically unaware of our thoughts and acutely aware of our feelings and feel powerless. When we are angry, it is because of what someone else has done or has not done; therefore, they are responsible for our upset. Usually, we do not even question whether the upset is because of how we think about the situation. Think about this for a moment; two people watch the exact interaction between two others; one of the onlookers feels anger and the other empathy. Why is this? The only real difference is the difference in the way the two people think about the occurrence. If you truly knew that you were the master of how you feel; Would you ever choose not to be happy? But, it is your choice in every situation.
ACIM, Text, PP. 7, Paragraph 1 line 9, “You are free to believe what you choose, and what you do attests to what you believe.”
There are only two emotions, love, and fear. Anything not rooted in love is always fear, and fear is always self-serving because fear is always of the ego. The ego is fear.
The two most used emotions of the ego are anger and guilt. We have taught ourselves to fear the angry, the enraged, and they, in turn, have learned to abuse this force to control others. Anger is evident when we attack but not so obvious when we are afraid. Anger is the result of fear. Oddly, we use anger to defend ourselves, believing our anger will keep us safe. If we respond to anger with an attack, we have chosen to engage in the vicious cycle of defense and attack. Someone has to take responsibility to step out of the process and end the dance. We use anger to manipulate, as we do all emotions that are based on fear. Some are almost impossible to identify as anger. Some of the behavior that comes from fear is very difficult to see as anger, and one such behavior is pouting. Think about what pouting is for; When we pout, are we not attempting to get our way? Getting its way is always the ego’s motive, to get what it and only it wants. With no regard to what anyone else wants or needs. And still, pouting can seem involuntary. It appears weak and, many times, pathetic. Yet, pouting can produce a result that gets the pouter their way; this is a potent tool to the ego.
Guilt and anger are two heads of the same beast, a beast nourished with fear—both wielding the same intended result, division, separation, and isolation. You cannot impose anger and or guilt on anyone and feel connected. Even if you acquire what you think you were after, the result will be loneliness. You have attained your gift through manipulation and cannot feel any true comfort from your deceit. To manipulate is to deceive. Deception of yourself or others can never bring peace.
Anger and guilt both seem to come from nowhere and often come from what appears to be justified interactions, but they never serve the higher good for all.
How, then, do we avoid these unwelcome guests? We don’t! We identify them, acknowledge them, and then choose to let them go. We CHOOSE the higher ground.
Please, become the observer of your thoughts and learn to be the master of your feelings and life.