Different thoughts bring you to different heights. When you think of that someone special, your heart flutters as a rush of warmth filled your entire body. When your enemy appears in your mind, your heart burns with anger in hell. Some thoughts send you to heaven with sheepish smiles, some thoughts send you to the North Pole of coldness. Yet others may bring you to Sahara Desert where it’s burning hot, you start to lose control of your thoughts.

Emotion is one of the elements which form the person we are. The bad news is we don’t get to control our emotions. We can only control how we react to the feelings we have inside. I call it the Emotion Thermometer. Whenever your body temperature changes, it is a signal to show that something is changing in your emotional being. And this happens an awful lot to me.

When I think about that special someone in my life, warmth sips into every corner of my face. I could be sitting in a cold air-con room but my face would be flushed with warmth, sometimes I get sick because of that. Or when I think about the people who upsets me, my palms tighten into fists and my body shakes terribly. Sometimes I lose control of my body because of that and have to lean on the bed to stop myself from falling.

That’s how influential my emotions are to my physical self. When tears could not come, my lungs are drowning and I would find myself panting even if I am sitting down on the chair. When happiness fills me, I find myself hopping and jumping around in a cute dance even if I am at the office. When anger kills me, I find myself stepping on the accelerator speeding down the winding streets taking dangerous bends at high speed.

Yes, I am an emotional person – an emotional being who can’t seem to shed a tear because life has built me up to be too strong to cry; an emotional being who can’t seem to smile like a clown because mom always said I look fat when I smile; an emotional being who can’t seem to let out my anger at others because I feel for them. Being emotional is good in one way or another because it helps in my writings. But emotions burn up a lot of my energy all the time leaving me tired and in despair.

A lot of people cannot define how they feel inside but the people around them can because of their physical changes that shine outward. It’s important to know that you can depend on your Emotion Thermometer when it comes to reacting to the feelings you have inside, to the way people make you feel and the thoughts that influence how your heart feels.

When you can identify how your body reacts to certain emotions, you’ll learn how to control your reactions to the way you feel inside better. Just like myself. Every time I speed through the winding streets, I know I am stressed out inside though when I start to think of it, there’s really nothing to be stressed about. The thing is my body might be stressed though my mind is not. Upon identifying that I am subconsciously stressed inside, I find ways to make sure that this subtle emotion is being taken care of.

I am really depending on my Emotion Thermometer to tell me the wellness of my inner being. And it helps to bring life to another level as I learn to understand myself better. How about you? Are you aware of your Emotion Thermometer?

Originally written by Gina Yap Lai Yoong © 2007

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

No related posts.