Emotions in the bin

Stop. Stop. Just stop it! You're hurting yourself, and by extension, them soon enough. Don't you see... that your feelings are getting in the way? For all we know, they could be really caught up in some ugly stuff and just couldn't respond how you'd like. But I get it. It does suck to sometimes feel this way. So let's delete our emotional component.

Imagine for a second that you do not have feelings. That you're not so joyous and giddy this moment and then pissed at your boss's unrealistic mail the next. "He wants to see it by morning? How about my fist meets your face instead... sir?" Would be cool if nothing moved you. You'd be Superman and indestructible to emotional bullets.

Here's what would also happen. You'll walk into a supermarket to grab a drink and leave three hours later, having done nothing else but that. Before a dozen brands and flavors to pick from, you'll stand there thinking, over-analyzing which to select.

"Does this have more calories or something?" And of course you would, because you'd normally walk in and out within 5 seconds with that chilling mango Chivita. But that was when you had feelings. I think you already know where I am going with this.

Shortcuts. That's what our feelings give us to make certain types of decisions. Like if you want to be with this lady and embrace her not-so-award-winning singing voice, knowing that she's such a sweet soul regardless. So in some ways, our feelings are useful. And whether they're desirable or not, they're valid. They always are.

Of course your feelings are valid. They reflect your thoughts, so yes, they are. There's a direct connection between what we feel and what we think. The question now becomes, are your thoughts justifiable? They would also be valid with respect to your values and whatnot, but justifiability is a different thing.

If you could hold up reality as-is against your thoughts [or perceived reality], would they align? If they do, then congratulations. They are justifiable. Otherwise, well, there you go. You have a mirror before you.

So let's track back a bit. Seems I heard you say something like they probably don't care as much because they gave a one-liner to your heartfelt show of concern and love. Is that really true? I mean, yeah, they could do better, but is that really the reality? We just talked about this. What you'd be better off doing is being like - you might not have guessed this - the sun.

Have you taken a moment to observe the sun lately? Or maybe even appreciated it today? Perhaps you're indifferent, but you must have heard one or two people unhappy with the sun in the last week. Either way, you can clearly see that Mr. Sun doesn't care what anyone thinks. He just shines regardless.

Be good. Be real. Just do you... and do your best to tame your emotions; you wouldn't want to delete them, but you sure don't want to leave the wheels to them. You're far better off in control. But hold up... was I just in a convo with myself again? Come on, man.