Emotion… What is an emotion? a feeling? Something makes us feel good, something makes us feel bad. Why? What are these feelings that we have, how are they created, where do they come from? What’s going on? Well… here’s a brief description: whenever we experience something, particles in the brain called peptides are released. These peptides are the things that give us our feelings and emotions. When you experience something that you believe to be enjoyable the peptides for joy are released into your blood stream and you have a feeling of joy, whereas if you experience something you believe to be sad then the peptides for sadness are released and you experience the feeling of sadness. Now, if you read over that last sentence a few times you can catch something very powerful. The powerful thing is the two words “you believe”. What you believe, you feel. Your emotions are just a creation from your choice/outlook/perception of a certain experience. You are creating your emotions out the experience of “reality” you choose. Change your perception, change your emotion.

Example 1a:
You were a child of a family of five, you were the middle child with a brother and a sister both with special needs(Autism, Cerebral Palsy, or what ever disorder). During your life growing up at home, your parents had to spend almost all their time working with your brother and sister because of there disabilities. Spending more time with them compared to you, giving them special attention, special things, more gifts yadda yadda yadda. Over time you started to feel left out, you weren’t getting the same attention, you felt like you didn’t belong, you felt as though your parents didn’t love you as much because they gave your siblings all the attention in the world but gave you none. Furthermore, you started to dispise your parents because of the lack of attention they gave you and you blamed them for not loving you as much. By the time you became an adult and moved out there was a lot of tension with you and your family

because of this lack of attention. Today, you carry a grudge on your shoulder because of the way you were treated growing up compared to your siblings. (Feelings of anger, hate, and pain are attached to your experience of growing up)

Example 1b:
You were a child of a family of five, you were the middle child with a brother and a sister both with special needs(Autism, Cerbral Palsy, or what ever disorder). During your whole life growing up at home, your parents had to spend almost all their time working with your brother and sister because of there disabilities. Spending more time with them compared to you, giving them special attention, special things, more gifts yadda yadda yadda. Over time, you started to realize that you were to doing a lot more on your own than your brother and sister. You started to see how many freedoms you had compared to your siblings. You were allowed to go out when they were not, you got to stay out later, you were allowed to stay at your friends over night, you were free to make your own choices and you were not confined to what your parents wanted you to do as they’re too busy telling your sibilings what to do. So as you grew up you started to appreciate how they had given you less attention as that experience has given you more freedom and the ability to make life choices on your own. By the time you became an adult and moved out there was a lot of love between you and your family and to this day you praise your experience of growning up getting less attention than you siblings. (Feelings of love, joy, and happiness are attached to your experience of growing up)

That was an example of how your choice/outlook/perception of the same experience can create two entirely different sets of emotions and feelings.

So now, look into your past and find an experience that you carry with you as being negative. Look for an experience that is holding you back, keeping you in fear. Re-enter that experience in your mind.

Start looking for and deciphering all the positive things that came out of the experience that you call negative. Process your thoughts around the experience in a positive way and you will slowly discover the positive side of the experience that has always been there, you’ve just been blind to see. Every experience, EVERY experience has a + and – in it. The beauty here is that you get to choose which you carry. You can carry the positive or you can carry the negative, you choose. You may think you have no choice, but that is just an illusion. If you think you have no choice about what feeling you carry with an experience it is becuase you don’t want to let go of the feelings that you have towards that experience. If you don’t want to let go, then the feelings in the experience are in some way serving you. If you let it go, the experience can no longer serve you in the way it did and you will lose the things that the experience currently gets you. Although, when you have changed your perception of the experience it will still serve you but in a new way.

Do you want to carry hate, anger, and pain or do you want to carry joy, happiness, and love?

You Choose.

Happy and Fulfilled,
Shane Lamotte