The Thought, Feeling and Emotion Formula

Did you know that feelings and emotions aren't the same thing? Most of us believe that these two things are one and the same. But, even though they are closely related, they are not the same. There is actually a simple formula that you can follow to give you an idea how thoughts, emotions and feelings relate and interact.

The Formula goes something like this; Thoughts + Emotions = Feelings. Here is a basic overview of the process: We have thoughts which depending on their subject elicit anemotion, ie: Happy, Sad, Angry, Joyous, etc.. When you add thoughts with emotions you get feelings. Feelings are the state of being we enter in because of the experience of our thoughts combined with emotions.

To make it a little clearer think of it this way. You decide to go to an amusement park to ride a rollercoaster. You have definite thoughts about riding that rollercoaster depending on your opinion of them and those thoughts tend to elicit an emotion or two. Those thoughts combined with those emotions create the feeling of excitement, exhilaration, dread, terror, queasiness, etc.  And, once you actually make it onto the ride, your short time on it creates a whole different feeling.

Now, don't take my examples or descriptions of these highly complex processes to be gospel. What I give you are basic stripped down versions of these processes. The idea being to give you a different or broader perspective of what Thoughts, feelings and emotions are and how they work.

The main reasoning behind this blog is to show you a simple example of how these processes function and to let you know that you have control over them. By changing one of the ingredients in the formula you change the entire formula. If you change the thought then you create a cascade effect that changes the emotion and thereby the feeling. If you keep the thought, but change the emotion behind it and you change the resulting feeling.

It has been my experience in the past that you can even change the formula after the fact through the experience that turned out to be different than you thought it would be. How often are we not sure of something or, as is more common, scared of what we don't know or understand and once we force ourself to do it completely change our mind about it. Thus, making retrograde changes to the thoughts, emotions and feelings associated with that experience.

As interesting as this concept is, you maybe wondering why I even brought it up. The reasoning is this: You are not your thoughts, emotions or feelings. The you that is eternal uses and utilizes the Feeling Formula, but is not bound by it. Through practice you can remove yourself from the whole formula and take an observers point of view.

The observers point of view is the seat of the Master. When you remember that you are not your body, its feelings or functions you widen your perspective and scope of view. You are then free from feeling like a slave to those bodily functions. Masters are no more powerful or special than any of us, they have simply understood that they are not what others perceive them to be and act accordingly.

Your path to self-mastery lies in a few simple understandings about your true nature and then acting accordingly. One step at a time, one day at a time, one moment at a time. The past is only a memory, the future is a mystery, the present is a gift.. That is why it is called "The" Present.

Play with this formula in your day-to-day, moment to moment life and you will see it in action and find your power to manipulate it as you see fit. Have fun!

Love and Light to you all!

Duality of The Human Condition

Welcome back! I'm so glad you decided to join me once again for another of my random rants about life.

Today I'm going to revisit a talk I recently gave at the Center for Spiritual Living in Huntsville Alabama, which also coincides with a chapter in my second book: The Human Condition. Which is really a discussion on the dualistic condition we live in as Spiritual Beings having a Human experience, or, if you prefer, Human Beings having a spiritual experience. Either way is fine because both are true.

That last sentence should be made into a motto, bumper stickers and murals to remind us all that in this ever-expanding multidimensional universe of unlimited-ness there is no "This or that", no matter what we've been taught and told all our life. There is "This AND That". Meaning, that the dualistic view of life as good or bad, black or white, them or us is a highly limited and naive perspective. But, we all have to start somewhere and every one of us is exactly where we need to be in our personal journey of evolution.

Let me explain a little and see if I can make this all clear as mud for you. ;-) I'll take a simplistic scientific approach for all of us to get a handle on this concept and then we can go from there.

The basic scientific principle I am speaking of resonates wholly with most spiritual and religious teachings in our world today. Which is this: There is only Light and an absence of light there is no "Light and Dark" or "Good and Evil" just Light. Scientist proved this a long time ago when they discovered absolute zero. The concept of absolute zero means that there is a point where it is impossible to get any colder or 'absolute zero'. Absolute zero proves that there is actually no such thing as cold, because if there was such a thing as cold it would continue on to infinity. Yet, it does not. So cold isn't actually 'cold' but is more appropriately described as an absence of heat or in other words an absence of light. And, if you're interested in proof consider the other side of the same absolute zero theory, which shows that there is no end to heat. The thermostat for heat just keeps on going up and up toward infinity.

Now let's change our terminology from heat to light. Just as there is absolute zero there is also absolute dark. Dark has a finality to it. Dark is not a 'thing' but the absence of a thing; Light. In no scenario can dark over take light. You never walk into a lit room and turn on the 'Dark' switch to swallow the light in darkness. No, you turn on the Light switch to repel the darkness or more correctly fill the empty space with light. Simply stated, there is only light. From zero to infinity there is light and light is the basis for heat. The more light you add the more heat you receive.

Think of it this way, we exist on a plane that begins at zero and goes to infinity. Since we are made up of vibrations of photons, which are the building blocks for light, we are basically light beings at a much slower vibration than that which we consider light. With quantum physics we know that all that we are and all that we perceive in this "Physical" reality is vibration. Everything in our world is vibration at varying levels from slow to fast. As well, vibration equates to heat; the higher the vibration the hotter the temperature. Rub your hands together and feel the heat building. This, of course, is a result of friction and friction is the resistance of the electrical fields of our atoms coming into contact of one another. Now stop and feel the tingling in your palms: the higher vibration of the electrons surrounding the atoms of your hands.

See! Isn't science fun?!

Now , let's look at the theory of Good and Bad or Good and Evil. Using the same theory of light we can summarize that there is no bad or evil but an absence of good. Or more correctly, an absence of Love. We as human beings are the physical expression of Love. As non-physical spiritual consciousness, or the state we exist in outside the body, we are pure love. Even as 'physical' humans we are mostly love. Look at the atom, which is 94.6% empty space and only 5.4% matter. We are made up completely of atoms, so therefore, we are only 5.4% matter and 94.6% empty space. What is that empty space that makes up our majority?

The scientist in France and Switzerland within the Large Hadron Collider are trying to answer just that question, by smashing photons together at close to the speed of light. In an attempt to identify 'Dark Matter' or the 'God Particle', which is what many of the scientists are calling the 'empty' space within atoms. But, I digress...

Since I'm no scientist and not the authority on these matters I'll keep this as simple as possible. Let's call this 'Empty' space within which we exist, 'Love'. A Course in Miraclesstates that there is only 'Love' and 'A Call for Love'. Just as we have discussed there is only Light and a lack of light, love can be described as light. There two terms are pretty much interchangeable in this way. Therefore, our lives are based on a plane or a scale of love. There is an absolute lack of love and then the infinity of love on the same scale. Good and Evil aren't what we were taught they were.

As human beings living within a dualistic societal model of this or that, us or them and good or bad are missing out on our whole nature due to this mindset. We are taught to demonize half of our nature as bad. Things such as anger and fear are natural components of our human make up and they have specific purposes within the natural world we live in. Yet, because of the dualistic mentality humans have been living in we have taken these natural traits and tools for survival and turned them into things to dismiss, ignore, overcome and label 'Bad'.

However, we are not good or bad, we are good and bad. We as humans are capable of every end of the spectrum and most of us will experience both ends of the spectrum and everything in between over and over again in our lives. This is because we are whole beings of love and light. Not a mish-mash of good and bad or usable and unusable.

Our emotions are all based in survival. Anger and fear are instinctual feelings related to fight or flight. They are very useful emotions that have a place in our lives. You know this to be true when someone is trying to wrong you or cheat you and you become angry to defend yourself and your rights. This is a very appropriate and healthy response to that sort of situation. If someone is trying to harm you and you become fearful and run away to save yourself from harm, this is appropriate and the intended use of fear.

You see, nothing that is within us is wrong or bad. Yet no matter what characteristics we possess all can be used appropriately and inappropriately. Just like something like water can be equally appropriate and inappropriate depending on the situation. Say your house in on fire and someone comes in with a hose to put out the flames. This is an appropriate use of water in your home. However, if your house wasn't on fire and someone came in spraying water around, you would consider this very inappropriate and probably become very angry. Which, is the appropriate response to another's inappropriate actions.

The thing is, there is no good or bad, light or dark, us or them, there are only people doing the best they can day in and day out. Everyone, you included, does the best they can in every moment of everyday. If they could do better they would. So the battle of good and evil really comes down to personal perspective of appropriateness. We don't argue over the legitimacy of what others do, but merely our perception of whether we consider it appropriate or not.

By understanding the purpose of our emotions and the appropriateness of our actions in each situation we can begin to stop judging ourselves so harshly and realize that we are children of God doing the best we can with what we have. We are the loving children of God having a human experience. We as Humans exist within an ocean of love and we are the droplets that make up that ocean. We are love. Remember who you are the next time you judge others or yourself. Everything that we are and possess is perfect as are we. It is all a matter of perspective. If your perspective isn't making you happy today, borrow God's for a min. She won't mind.

Much love to you all for coming here and co-creating with me today.