Feelings, Thoughts, and Actions

I feel! that I have chosen to come to this planet to explore and experience feelings.  It seems an excellent place to do so.  I am talking of course  about feelings of both a sensory and an emotional nature.

This planet seems just about the most perfect place anyone can imagine to experience feelings.   Let's consider just one thing: fruit.

From an evolutionary perspective, all that was needed to encourage us to eat fruit, was for fruit to taste sweet.  But fruit does not only taste sweet, nor is sweet the only taste we are able to experience when eating fruit.  No, there are so many varieties of fruit and they are all different in taste and texture, not to mention how they look and smell, and we lucky earthlings have the capacity to experience all of those differences.

But in this posting I want to explore specifically feelings of an emotional nature.  It seems we can't help but feel.  We are creatures born to feel.  Whatever we feel physically, evokes a feeling emotionally.  We feel pretty much during all of our waking moments.  We may not always be aware of our feelings, but they are always there, just below the surface.   We can not not feel.  We also can't control our feelings.  Maybe I am wrong.  Maybe some people can control their feelings.  I know I can't.  I also don't think I should try to.

Feelings are packets of information about myself, the people in my life, and my environment.  They are the letters that my spirit sends to itself about how it's going down here so far.   But, if I can't and shouldn't control my feelings, does that mean I should let them control me?  Not at all.  They should inform me, but they shouldn't control me.

I have come here to this planet not by myself but with others.

 Part of that deal is that we will live together here and, in order to do so, we agree to abide by certain rules.  Personal feelings have to be balanced by the rules I accepted when I signed up for earth.  What are the rules I accepted? To try to love others as I love myself---to try to be a good a human as possible.

My personal feelings may not always want me to abide by those rules.   I might feel like I want to yell at the slow driver in front of me, or grab the last of the ice cream, or stay seated while other people are working.  But doing that would break the rules that I agreed to, so I try not to let my feelings dictate my actions. I let them inform me.  I learn through my feelings that I get agitated when I am late.  That means I might need to budget more time when I travel.  I learn through my feelings that I like ice cream and I like it so much that I am tempted to act selfishly.

So, feelings can't be controlled, and should be seen as information.  Actions, on the other hand can be controlled, and should be. I believe that we are always responsible for how we act.  There is nothing more to say about it.  We are responsible.  If our actions hurt others, we are responsible.  If there were good reasons for why our actions hurt others, we are still responsible.

If we can not control our feelings and if we shouldn't even try to, and if we are responsible for our actions, do we have any wiggle room between these two?  I think so.  Our thoughts stem from our feelings and they can inform our actions.  I think we can control our thoughts.  It's not always easy, but it can be done.  I can replace a negative thought springing from a certain feeling which wants to lead to a negative action, with a different thought---one that would lead to a different action.  I can replace the thought "Jerk!" that arises when someone drives aggressively with "Maybe he's in a hurry.  I know nothing about his life."  If I allow myself to think "Jerk" that would most likely spur me onto an aggressive response, and I'd be responsible for that.  Thinking "Maybe he is in a hurry.  I know nothing about his life," opens up the possibility in me to let it go.

I can replace "I will grab the last ice cream before anyone else can" with "There is no food scarcity, I don't need to eat it now" or even "I'll take one bite and really savor it and leave some for someone else."

So, to sum up:  Feelings are information; we can not control them and we shouldn't try to.
Actions can be controlled and should be since we are responsible for everything we do.
Thoughts are the tools which can be used as a means to navigate between feelings and actions.  We can control them.  It's not easy but it's possible.  At least I feel it's possible.

And that concludes my early mornings thoughts and feelings about feelings, thoughts, and actions.  I feel now that I want to put the laptop down and snuggle under my blankets.  I think I will listen to my feelings.