[Neurons] 2012 Meta Reflections #24

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2012  #24

April 30, 2012

Empowerment Series #11

 

 

THE POWER OF EMOTIONS

 

 

Is there any question about the power of emotions?  I think not.  After all,
you don't have to live very long as a human being to know that your emotions
represent a very powerful resource within you.  The very term itself,
"emotion" speaks about the motion that is present- motion that is directed
to move you out (ex-, e-motion) from where you are to somewhere else.
That's become an emotion is "an action tendency" in your neurology.

 

No wonder then that there's energy within your emotions- energy to move you
to continue doing what is working and energy to move you to stop, look, and
listen and change what is not working.   Generally speaking, we call the
emotional energy that moves us to continue a "positive" emotion and we call
the emotional energy that moves us to stop or slow down a "negative"
emotion.  This corresponds to your neurology.   After all, you and I have
two kinds of nerve impulses- those that are excitatory and those that are
inhibitory.  In the excitatory nerve impulses which excite you and move you
to continue to do more of what you're doing, you feel positive.  In the
inhibitory nerve impulses which interrupt the excitatory processes, and
moves you to hold back, to reconsider what you are doing, you feel
"negative."

 

When you feel your emotions you are feeling the meanings that you have
created.  That is, the meaning constructions that you've created in your
thinking, cognizing, valuing, understanding, believing, deciding,
appraising, identifying, etc., you now are somatizing.  Soma refers to your
body and when you transfer your thoughts to your body, you translate from
mind into muscle or neurology.  This is somatizing- incorporating your
meanings in your body.

 

This explains why, and how, every emotion makes sense.  Every emotion that
you experience, you created in your body.  It is a function of your
meaning-making.  It makes sense and is right- right to the mental mapping
that you are operating from.  In this sense, there are no "wrong" emotions.
Of course, your emotions can be unproductive.  They can be mis-informed;
they can be fallacious, erroneous, and unhelpful, but they are always
"right."

 

And if every emotion is right, makes sense, then you have no need to deny
the emotion, resist the emotion, repress it, or get angry at yourself for
it. Instead, meta-state the emotion with acceptance so that you simply an
non-emotionally just acknowledge what you are feeling.  Do that and you will
find that you will begin experiencing the emotion as "just an emotion."  In
other words, you stop yourself from over-loading the emotion with too much
meaning or turning against yourself because of the emotion.

In Neuro-Semantics when you turn against an emotion, we say that you are
creating unresourceful "dragon" states.  If you hate your anger, if you
despise your fear, if you fear your ambition, and so on, you are first of
all fighting against an emotion that you created in your meaning
constructions and therefore preventing yourself from understanding yourself,
your thoughts, your values and judgments, etc.  And you are then
meta-stating another layer or frame above the particular emotion and thereby
texturing it with energy against yourself.  In the end, this creates
conflict within you so that you create another level of a problem.  (This is
the subject of the book, Dragon Slaying, 2000).

 

The meta-stating solution is to accept every emotion, acknowledge it for
what it is, curiously explore how you have created it and what it means in
your system, and then decide the best way to respond to it.  This describes
the basic Meta-Stating Emotions pattern that occurs in APG and other
Neuro-Semantic trainings and is the foundation for emotional intelligence as
it enables you to detect, monitor, and manage your emotions.

 

Now the power of emotions is basically the power to feel, to be real, to be
motivated, and to experience vitality.  Pretty important reasons to accept
and appreciate your emotions.  When you try to not feel some emotion and end
up using some ego-defense mechanism like repression to make the emotion go
away, you dampen your feelings, authenticity, motivation, and vitality.
This also can create distorted emotions like depression.

 

For example, the emotion of sadness is a "negative" emotion designed to
enable you to register loss, come to terms with that loss, and experience
the motivation to replace what has been lost.  But if you are sad about your
sadness, or angry at yourself for the loss, or afraid of the experience of
loss- you could create a distorted emotion called "depression."  Now you are
"pressing" "down" your energies, hopes, dreams, desires, activities, etc.
You are de-pressing yourself.

 

The solution?  Get ready for what might seem like a paradox: Accept the
depression and curiously find out what frame (meaning) that you have given
the original emotion, then accepting that emotion (whether sadness, loss,
self-despising, etc.), identify a more appropriate meaning frame.  "Loss is
natural and inevitable, just a part of life."  "Loss is a call for change."

 

If you find yourself without energy- with no motivation, vitality, drive,
etc., identify a context where this occurs and begin to "climb your meaning
ladder" (layers of meta-states or logical levels) to find out the meanings
that you have been somatizing.  "What does this X mean to you?"  "Let's say
that's true, so what?  What would that mean?"  Continue this line of
questioning and meta-questioning until you identify the matrix of your
frames.  Now you are at choice point! (Empowerment series #9).

 

Emotions- your biological, neurological engine for motivation, for vitality,
for power!  If this is new, get Secrets of Personal Mastery, or Dragon
Slaying, or get yourself to an APG training somewhere in the world!

 

 

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Neuro-Semantics Executive Director  ----   <http://www.neurosemantics.com/>
www.neurosemantics.com

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA                              

1 970-523-7877                                               

     

What is Neuro-Semantic NLP?   Get your free subscription to "Neurons" ---
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<http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com.   Dr. Hall sends
out  Meta Reflections  every Monday (Colorado time).  Trainers' Reflections
occur  on Tuesdays and Meta-Coach Reflections on  Wednesdays.   Contact Dr.
Hall at   <mailto:meta at acsol.net> meta at acsol.net  

 

For world-class Coach Training --- see Meta-Coaching System at
<http://www.meta-coaching.org/> www.meta-coaching.org and at
<http://www.metacoachfoundation.org> www.metacoachfoundation.org  

 

Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential Movement in 2007, for
information about the Self-Actualization workshops, go to
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

 

 

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