The 365 Commitment

Day 327 – Cultivate Emotion

Is it possible to cultivate emotion? Can you actually work at getting better and having a particular emotion? I have always thought that emotions are just what happens to you. I get hungry, then the emotion that follows is grumpiness. I get tired, then the emotion that follows is irritation. I get have some success, then the emotion that I experience is gratitude. I experience failure, then the emotion becomes sadness. However, maybe this is my problem.

I am letting emotions control me. I am in emotional reactionary mode. I am bouncing through life like a ping pong ball, emotion to emotion. I am beginning to realize that it does not have to be this way.

You can control emotion, well better stated, you can cultivate an emotion and actually encourage that emotion to occur more often. You do not have to just sit around and wait for the emotion of depression to come creeping back into your life. Instead, you can work on and develop your ability to experience better emotions like gratitude and joy.

Unfortunately, as with anything good in life, emotion cultivation requires work. You have to put effort into exploring, understanding and trying to figure out what the emotion of gratitude is. What is it triggered by? When do you feel gratitude and why? What does it feel like when you do have gratitude? Can you imagine yourself having gratitude before you have a reason to be gracious?

I am imaging someone saying, I just don’t love you anymore. What are they really saying? They are saying – I do not want to put the effort in to trying to feel the emotion of love toward you any more. It is an expression of laziness, lack of action, unwillingness. You just do not fall out of love with someone, you just stop wanting to try to cultivate the emotion.

Try this. Actually focus on trying to feel the emotion, desire or hope to have the emotion and focus on it for a while. Guess what, you will start to figure it out and pretty soon your mind, body and soul will determine how to make that emotion happen. Wouldn’t it be great if you felt the emotions of elation, joy, happiness, gratitude, peace, all the good ones all the time? Well, I think you can – but you have to work at it. The word cultivation implies what you have to do to nurture something so that it will grow.

Guy Reams (327)
365 Member

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