Part 2: Are Your Emotions Your Own?
When emotion and thought come together in the body, we recognize that we are having a feeling. Emotions that are not experienced in the body have very little influence on you. You are aware and experience your emotions as your own when you feel them in your body. This is the experience of having a feeling. As we move forward, we’re going to focus on the experience of emotions, which are feelings.
Feelings are also part of these early life programs and systems mostly formulated when you were a child. Again, about 95% of your feelings are patterns and systems for survival and meeting your needs, and only 5% of them are new feelings in response to this present moment. Some studies that are being done are determining that out of the 5% of feelings you have each day that is outside of these subconscious systems, only 2% of them belong to you. The other 3% belong to others, and just like a radio, you’re picking up their signal and broadcasting it through you.
Isn’t it amazing to realize that 95% of your day is being perceived and governed by automated patterns and systems established when you were a child? So rather than experiencing each day anew, you're repeating patterns from yesterday. It’s your own Groundhog Day.
You see thoughts direct your focus. Focus governs where your attention and energy are directed and applied. This process selects the emotions that are included in that particular programmed system. This mixes together and you have a feeling in your body. Your body responds immediately. If you pay subtle attention to your body when you’re having a feeling, you’ll notice you’re either leaning forward or backward. At a very subtle level, your body immediately moves toward what you are perceiving or away from it based on what the system is designed to have you do. This happens so quickly that you’re most often unaware of it.
Next time you're feeling something, notice where your body is leaning. Are you leaning forward or backward? Don't consciously label the situation as good or bad. Notice how your body is responding to the experience.
