Monthly Archives: February 2009
Feelings are not facts!
We often fall into the trap of sensing that the emotions we are having this very moment are so real that they are facts and they will last forever. When we are so overwhelmed by our emotions it clouds how we see our life and those around us. The other side is that we are so sure that our emotions have such super strength that we avoid getting close to them. Either way I’m here to tell you emotions are not as strong as we give them credit for. They are powerful insight into what is going on within but they are not the end-all-be-all.
First up is that you are tired, worried about something, life events move in a direction that appears negative, and before you know it you are angry. You start lashing out at people that you love and the emotions just seem to take over. You can’t seem to find your balance …. you know that what you are doing doesn’t make for good healthy relationships but you can’t help yourself. Or so you think. Trapped in a spiral of negativity you feel bad, you attack others, and all this creates a bad situation. It grows and before you know it you feel like the world is crumbling down. You feel certain that you can’t handle things and that life will just continue on this way which of course adds to the feeling that you can’t handle what is going on.
Second is the approach that perhaps things are not going bad at all, instead they are going great. Your new relationship is going well and your partner just expressed their love to you. You can feel the energy in the room shift and your partner looks at you to get a response as to how you feel. You turn cold. You feel yourself pull away on the inside. You don’t want to be afraid of this wonderful person but you have been hurt in the past. That hurt felt terrible and you never want to feel that again. So you turn off the happy connecting feeling so that down the road you don’t have to feel possible hurt. Again the emotions feel so huge that you can’t handle them.
One embraces the emotions as everything and the other ignores the emotions because they feel they are everything. Same coin, different sides. Feelings are a response to stimuli. They are the result of data coming in and being processed. How they are processed can be sound and valid or it can be based on passed issues that trigger a not as sound response. This is why we look for other things within us (and sometimes outside of us) to help gauge.
Feelings are transitory. Don’t believe me? I am sure you can think back to a super happy wonderful time and then one event turned it all around. I had a birthday party as a child and was thrilled and then it started raining and I felt horrible. I went inside feeling it was ruined and no one would like me. Stuff happens. One emotions can change into another.
You did not wake up thinking you would be happy every single moment but funny how our minds when we are upset think we will be unhappy for every single moment to come. It is a nasty trick we play on ourselves. So when you are dealing with feelings you don’t like or not dealing with them because you are so afraid of them, you are not in balance. Emotions are reactionary. They are creating your reality as opposed to you being proactive with your thoughts and creating it for yourself.
So when a situation occurs where you feel overwhelmed by emotion or want to escape them, try to remember that you are in control of your thoughts. You have the ability to consider HOW you are viewing your emotions. How you view the day as negative or positive helps balance what emotions you respond with. So if you are having a really bad day you will probably respond more negatively. You know this and take it into consideration and check yourself and your responses. If you are unsure if you are making choices that you would make in a more calm state of mind then take a moment, a day, a year, and really look at the situation. Evaluate what is going on and what others might do that you respect and see if you feel you are on track.
And if you are afraid to feel hurt or sadness or negativity and you run from it by not experiencing those emotions. They have a hold on you just as strongly. Emotions are not reality and if you allows yourself to feel sad you will not feel sad forever. It is hard and scary to deal with but even your levels of sadness rise and fall so you have proof that it isn’t all the same. And at the end of the day they are just feelings… they pass and move and change and you can handle that. If you try feeling your feelings (such a therapy phrase) and you get scared that is okay. Take it as an opportunity to learn a fuller spectrum of emotions with the knowledge that they shift and you are in control of the thoughts you have around your emotions.
Feelings are not facts. Feelings are not facts. Feelings are NOT facts.
Say it over and over again until you have a handle on how to deal with your emotions.
How to have a happy relationship
A friend that I admire greatly recently wrote up an essay that is too good not to share with others. So I present to you the wisdom of Franklin Veaux…
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Relationship Ideas That Should Be Obvious But Aren’t.
You can’t expect to have what you want if you don’t ask for what you want.
This is arguably one of the most basic rules for all of life, yet it’s surprising how often we forget. There’s almost no greater recipe for emotional turmoil then wanting something or harboring some expectation, not telling anyone about it, and then not getting it.
Next time you get really, really upset about some desire or expectation not being met, stop and ask yourself: “Did I actually let the people around me know about it?” (Here’s a tip: Dropping hints about what you want doesn’t count. Neither does wishing really hard. Nor waiting for the folks around you to become telepathic.)
If all of your relationships go pear-shaped in the same exact way and end badly in the same exact way, then maybe it’s because of something you’re doing.
Seriously. The one common element in all your relationship failures is you. Someone cheat on you? Well, that sucks, but it happens. Every single person you ever date in your life cheat on you? You’re attracted to folks who cheat.
If all of your relationships end the same way, maybe it’s time to step back and take a good, hard look at the kinds of folks you’re attracted to.
If you find that sex always becomes boring after a while in all your relationships, maybe it’s because you’re choosing to let it.
There’s a lot of fun you can have in (and out) of the bedroom. The total range of the human sexual experience is breathtaking–so much so that if you lived to be a thousand years old and did something different in bed every night for that entire thousand years, you’d still never have time to do it all. Seriously.
If you find that your sex life keeps getting stuck in a rut, maybe it’s time to explore something new. (A sure way to make yourself crazy and have a boring sex life is to keep worrying about whether trying something new would be “too weird.” The expression “That’s too weird” has done more to advance the cause of boring sex than all the world’s religions combined.)
Going into a relationship with the expectation that you can get your partner to change is quite likely to end in tears.
Now, don’t get me wrong–people can and do change. In fact, change is the one constant in life. I’m not the person I was five years ago, and if you’re doing this properly, you aren’t either.
But expecting that a person will change in the ways that you want him to, because you want him to, is setting yourself up for suck and fail. Fixer-upper relationships usually don’t work. And if you go into things thinking “Oh, I can fix him!” you just might find your ship of enthusiasm foundering on the shoals of the fact that maybe he likes being the way he is.
A relationship in which you say “This relationship is absolutely wonderful except for…” is not absolutely wonderful. Especially when the part that comes after the “except for…” is something so horrifying it’d make most folks run for the hills.
This relationship is wonderful except for the fact that we’re completely incompatible in bed. This relationship is wonderful except for the fact that she keeps forgetting to take her meds. This relationship is wonderful except for the fact that he can’t talk honestly about his feelings. Look out!
For maximum effect, try combining “this relationship is wonderful except for…” with “…but I know I can change him” and double your suck!
A partner who is kind to you but not kind to the waitress isn’t a kind person.
Seriously. The fact that he’s kind to you might just mean that he wants something from you. (Or that you’re not his property…yet. Marry that person who’s nice to you but not nice to the waitress and you might just find that once the ring is on your finger, he may start treating you like the waitress. Or worse.)
The way a person treats the folks around him reveals a lot about his true self. Pay attention.
It is possible to deeply, profoundly, genuinely, truly love someone, and yet that person might still not be a good partner for you.
It takes more than love to make a relationship work. A person you love, but who is incompatible with you, or who lacks good relationship skills, or who can’t communicate with you, is not going to make for a functional, healthy relationship. Love and five bucks will get you a cup of coffee. Or, to put it more scientifically, love is necessary but not sufficient, no matter how many Disney movies and romantic comedies say otherwise.
Though really, if you’re taking your cues on relationship from Disney movies and romantic comedies, there’s probably little that I or anyone else can do.
Find a way to build a friendship with that person that honors and respects that love without trying to turn it into something unsustainable and you’ll do okay. And as a corollary:
Being in love with someone doesn’t mean you HAVE to be in a relationship with that person.
Seriously. You have a choice. You can love someone, and acknowledge that love, and still choose not to be romantically involved with that person.
That’s one of the cool things about being a human being You get to choose.
You can’t have intimacy without sharing. If you spend your time hiding things from your partner, or worrying about whether or not you can share something with your partner, you’re not going to have an intimate relationship.
Everything you conceal from your partner undermines the foundation of intimacy upon which relationships are built.
No, that doesn’t mean telling your partner every time oyu take a dump (and why is it that folks who don’t cotton to sharing and openness always reach for that example?). But it does mean sharing everything that’s important, significant, or meaningful. Even if it’s uncomfortable.
Especially if it’s uncomfortable, because the fact that it’s uncomfortable probably means there’s something important lurking in there. Communication ain’t for sissies.
What you get out depends on what you put in. Approach every new partner with fear and suspicion, and you’ll have fearful, suspicious partners.
Te best way to have a friend is to be a friend. The best way to have people around you who have compassion and integrity is to be a person with compassion and integrity. The best way to fill your life with suck and fail is to fill other people’s lives with suck and fail.
You know that saying “opposites attract”? It’s rubbish. Honest people look for, and attract, other honest people.
A person who has cheated on someone else to be with you cannot be trusted not to cheat on you to be with someone else.
No, you’re not different. You’re not a rare and unique flower, so totally set apart from that shrill, obnoxious harpy that he’s with right now. You know how he tells you that you’re so much better than that monster he’s hooked up with? I bet he says the same thing about you to the other person he’s shagging. You know, the one that neither you nor his other partner knows about.
Be wary of a person who trashes all their exes in front of you, for someday you’ll likely be on that list yourself.
You know that person with the long list of former partners, all of whom were shrill, obnoxious harpies? Does something seem odd about that list to you?
Best case scenario, it means he keeps getting involved with the same sorts of people again and again, and doesn’t learn anything from any of those experiences. What do you reckon that says about you?
Worst case scenario, it’s a clear sign of someone who doesn’t take responsibility for his own part in all those past train wrecks. Which means he ain’t learning from any of them. Which means…you’re the next train wreck. What do you suppose he’ll say about you to the train wreck that follows after you?
Tell the truth from the start, and you won’t have to worry about any nasty revelations down the road.
Especially about things you worry might scare her off. Seriously, if the truth about you makes you incompatible as a romantic partner, you want to scare her off. You’re bisexual but your new love interest hates gays? You fancy country music and your partner would rather die than listen to it? Hiding those things doesn’t help your cause; it merely makes the blowup that much more dramatic when the truth comes out.
Which it will, eventually.
Be honest, be true to who you are, and you won’t have to worry about what happens if you slip up. On the other hand, make yourself seem like something you’re not, even if it’s to make yourself seem more attractive to the other person (hell, especially if it’s to make yourself seem more attractive to the other person!) is going to end badly, sooner or later. I promise.
