tanhaRiding High!
October 5th 2006 13:58
The most powerful part of our personality is perhaps our emotions. They are often the real reasons we do things, even though we think we are being "Oh, so rational". Let me say that being rational is a most rare phenomenon!
If we allow emotion full steam in our lives we'll race around looking for immediate gratification at the expense of future planning If we tie them up too tight we become insensitive or numb to those around us in need, lacking in compassion and hurting those close to us.
I look at emotions like horses. Horses are very powerful.. You need to be well acquainted with them to understand them. You need their different characters, colours, capacities. When the horse is born it is nourished carefully. As it reaches a certain age it is broken in. This process is most important, even for the horse. If it is broken well, it gets a good, caring home. If it is badly broken it gets constantly sold on and ends up at the abbatoirs.
You wouldn't go out riding on an unbroken horse or even a half broken one. It will attempt to dislodge you, wipe your off against a barb-wire fence or under a tree or simply buck you off!. It is power that you can't control.
A well broken (disciplined0 horse is a great pleasure to ride and will be selected for special educaion and treatment. Its magnificence and strength are at your service and always ready to work. It is attractive, friendly, confident, intelligent and co-ooperative. It responds instantly to instruction, is alert, focussed, has personality and style, and is always ready for a new adventure!
An over disciplined horse will be too timid to be much use, too confused to know what you want, too frightened to co-operate. In lackof confidence it cannot perform as needed.
And, of course there are all the degrees in between.
Emotions are just like those horses, powerful and potentially brilliant. However you need them well educated so they don't "ride you!", bolt or take off with you, wipe you out with sheer exhaustion, knock you down or tear you to shreds.
Then you need to use a saddle and bridle to make sure they are under control and that you can steer them right. If you are a good rider, you will dance with your emotions as the Viennese Riding School dance with their horses, legantly, cleverly, effectively, in harmony and as one unit.
If the emotions are for any reason unreasonably repressed, they will cause disquiet, major stress reactions, lack of confidence and ability to relate to people, depression and general disfunction.
For example; an actor about to perform often goes through quite terrible stage fright. However, he knows it is all about anticipation, and will disappear once s/he gets on stage and has the audience eating out of his/her hand, so s/he goes on anyway. He takes the bridle and saddle and rides his emotions to great effect! A parent, enraged by the behaviour of a child, doesn't hysterically scream, but feels the rage and considers how best to train the child in alternative acceptable behaviours.
A Martin Luther King, enraged by discrimmination against his people discovers a method of informing the country clearly and effectively of their discontent, eventually gaining (posthumously) the desired result.
In each case the emotions are powerful and real, fully acknowledged and felt, but 'bridled and saddled" for best effect.
Solution? Emotions are there to let you know what the state of the world is, and to motivate you to great causes and accomplishments, not to run away with you. You need intimacy with them, control of them and the ability to ride them properly using correct restraints. Then they will be of very great service to you!
If we allow emotion full steam in our lives we'll race around looking for immediate gratification at the expense of future planning If we tie them up too tight we become insensitive or numb to those around us in need, lacking in compassion and hurting those close to us.
I look at emotions like horses. Horses are very powerful.. You need to be well acquainted with them to understand them. You need their different characters, colours, capacities. When the horse is born it is nourished carefully. As it reaches a certain age it is broken in. This process is most important, even for the horse. If it is broken well, it gets a good, caring home. If it is badly broken it gets constantly sold on and ends up at the abbatoirs.
You wouldn't go out riding on an unbroken horse or even a half broken one. It will attempt to dislodge you, wipe your off against a barb-wire fence or under a tree or simply buck you off!. It is power that you can't control.
A well broken (disciplined0 horse is a great pleasure to ride and will be selected for special educaion and treatment. Its magnificence and strength are at your service and always ready to work. It is attractive, friendly, confident, intelligent and co-ooperative. It responds instantly to instruction, is alert, focussed, has personality and style, and is always ready for a new adventure!
An over disciplined horse will be too timid to be much use, too confused to know what you want, too frightened to co-operate. In lackof confidence it cannot perform as needed.
And, of course there are all the degrees in between.
Emotions are just like those horses, powerful and potentially brilliant. However you need them well educated so they don't "ride you!", bolt or take off with you, wipe you out with sheer exhaustion, knock you down or tear you to shreds.
Then you need to use a saddle and bridle to make sure they are under control and that you can steer them right. If you are a good rider, you will dance with your emotions as the Viennese Riding School dance with their horses, legantly, cleverly, effectively, in harmony and as one unit.
If the emotions are for any reason unreasonably repressed, they will cause disquiet, major stress reactions, lack of confidence and ability to relate to people, depression and general disfunction.
For example; an actor about to perform often goes through quite terrible stage fright. However, he knows it is all about anticipation, and will disappear once s/he gets on stage and has the audience eating out of his/her hand, so s/he goes on anyway. He takes the bridle and saddle and rides his emotions to great effect! A parent, enraged by the behaviour of a child, doesn't hysterically scream, but feels the rage and considers how best to train the child in alternative acceptable behaviours.
A Martin Luther King, enraged by discrimmination against his people discovers a method of informing the country clearly and effectively of their discontent, eventually gaining (posthumously) the desired result.
In each case the emotions are powerful and real, fully acknowledged and felt, but 'bridled and saddled" for best effect.
Solution? Emotions are there to let you know what the state of the world is, and to motivate you to great causes and accomplishments, not to run away with you. You need intimacy with them, control of them and the ability to ride them properly using correct restraints. Then they will be of very great service to you!
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