Emotions Are Not Things - Grasshopper

“Emotion” may be a noun but it’s not a thing; it’s a feeling.

You can put “things” in a wheelbarrow and haul them away, but not emotions.

 

Saying something like, “I was a victim of disrespect” makes disrespect into a thing. It’s not; it’s a feeling.

 

And like all feelings, they’re felt in your body. We keep them around longer than need be by repeating a noun over and over in our head. It’s best to identify where in your body you are feeling this sensation you have made into a noun.

 

Once you locate where this feeling physically lives in your body, it’s most useful to let it make its impressions on you. The worst thing you can do is ignore the feeling and go into your head to rant about it. That just keeps the sensation around longer.

 

If you want a feeling to dissipate, the quickest way for that to happen is to sit with the sensation in your body. Just give your attention to the part of your body feeling the feeling. Don’t talk to yourself about it, just feel it.

 

When you make a feeling a thing, you just give it more sting.

 

Nouns are concrete things and so are feelings when you attempt to talk them away.

 

Make it a habit to feel them without commentary and watch those nouns melt and fade away.

 

All the best,