Compass

Good Morning,

What are feelings for? We all emotions and feelings, but just what
are they and why do we have them? It has been said that humans unlike
animals have no instincts, that we learn everything and come into
this world with little more intuition than to cry and eat. What we do
have are feelings, a primitive type of instinct. Feelings are our
brains way of telling us when we are doing things that are OR are not
in our best interest. It's no coincidence that fat, sugar, salt and
sex tend to make people happy. Theses things are, by and large good
for mammals (keeps us alive, reproducing and with shiny coats!). It
is also no surprise that a whack upside the head or a scary face
frighten us. Our emotions are a very coarse, but not bad guide to
what's good or bad for you in the world, a compass of sorts.

Now what good is a compass that is always stuck on north? A good
compass has to be free to fluctuate and similarly, an emotional
system has to be free to go from happy to unhappy. It can't get stuck
on endlessly blissful, or else it approaches or avoids everything
equally. We ARE meant to be happy, and we ARE meant to be unhappy.
We are supposed to suffer when we encounter circumstances that are
not good for us.

If we use our emotions with some sense of purpose and some
understanding then we go a long way towards better understanding
ourselves, others, happiness and life in general. It is when we
expect to always be happy, to always impress the boss, to always make
our children happy that we set ourselves up for the greatest
suffering, because at that point we have abandoned all reason and all
the facilities we were given to find our way. . . . we truly are
traveling without a compass.

Have a beautiful day and look at it this way; Just as your car runs
more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when
the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your
thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.

Peace and Love, Jim