Our Emotions, Friend or Foe?

by Kaleb Montgomery, Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Our body constantly sends us messages. "I'm hungry, tired, cold, overwhelmed, excited, stressed, sad etc.. Emotions, like hunger and tiredness, are just another piece of information you receive. When you are tired, you rest. When you are hungry, you eat. Simple. The same thing should apply with our emotions. Your pet dies, you feel sadness and cry. If we express our emotions, they leave us. Like if we are hungry, we eat and we are no longer hungry. Hunger is the body's way of communicating low fuel levels. Sadness is one of our body's responses to loss. If we cry, it goes away. Unfortunately for most of us it is not that easy. Most of the time we do not even realize what we are feeling. Then if we are aware of our emotional state we are not good at expressing it. Consequently, problems arise.

Fundamental laws of the universe are at work. According to modern physics everything is in motion. Even down to an atomic level all molecules are in constant motion. They are moving, bumping into each other and flowing around. Water is a good example. It wants to flow from the mountians to the sea. You can stop it with a dam. However pressure builds up behind the dam. You have to maintain the dam or it will burst. Either we put energy into repairing and maintaining the dam or it breaks and the water flows back to the sea.

Our emotions work the same way. Emotions are energy. They are biochemical reactions happening in the brain. We feel sad when Fido dies. If we cry and mourn his death, the energy flows through us and back out again. If we do not cry or mourn, the energy is dammed up inside of us. Just like the real dam, it takes energy to maintain the energy dam. Our body tries to force us to deal with these emotional blocks. The body does not like emotional blocks because they are a drain on our energy reserves. Our body tries to get through by being literal. Fido dies, we are sad, our heart hurts and we experience chest pain. Often we do not get the message. So we get a cold or a flu. Through the fever and illness our body forces us to slow down and stop. Now we can take a break and relfect on our situation. Here is an example of how this usually works for me. Usually I get a cold and flu when I am having girl friend problems. I will get a fever and become weak. I can no longer resist. My naturally stuborn nature has to accept the change that I do not want to accept. It is a beautiful system.

To our detriment we fight this system all the time. Anger is an emotion that most of us have difficulty expressing. Often we do not express it, we hold it in. The anger then turns inward. Feeling depressed is a common result. If we do manage to express it we usually wait until we are so angry that we blow up, scream and yell, and maybe even become violent. None of these responses are ideal. It would be easier if we did not feel angry. If we were all like the Dalai Lama, then we would have compassion for everyone and never feel anger. The reality is that we all feel angry, sad, lonely and depressed. The trick is what do we do once we feel these emotions. Ignoring them or pushing them away does not work. That way we only harm ourselves and become ill. There are other possibilites. Next article all the answers will be revealed.