Thought for the Week
The Ancient Greek saying "Know thyself” was inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi and has been attributed to ancient Greek sages including, Plato, Pythagoras and Socrates. It is still relevant today. If we know how we work, that is, how we react to things, what makes us do the things we do, we will have a better understanding of how our life works.
There are different elements within us which we should try to get to know better. They are:
Our emotions
Our memories
Our mind
Our intuition
Our true self, Soul.
This week we’ll look at our emotions and memories, next week we’ll discuss our mind, intuition and Soul.
Our personal emotions
Our personal emotions are easy enough to see. Here’s a list of the basic ones we can experience on a regular basis.
Confidence
Fear
Happiness
Sadness
Love
Loneliness
Beauty
Horror
There are several levels within each of these emotions, which vary with the strength of the emotion.
Know our emotions
So how can we know ourselves through our emotions? Depending on the intensity of the emotion we may be able to observe ourselves as we go through them. For example, if we are angry which is often part of fear or sadness, we may be able to just observe ourselves as we go through the turmoil it brings. We could to do this at the time or later when we’ve calmed down. If we can look at ourselves as we go through the anger we can observe:
What triggers it,
How we react,
At what point do we loose control or
Can we keep control of it,
What happens next,
How we get back to some kind of calmness.
If there are others involved in the emotional exchange, how are they affected, are they part of the cause or the cure? How can we handle the same situation better in the future?
By taking this kind of a detached view, of this part of our life, we can get a better understanding of it. The next time we come across it we will have an idea of what is going on. We’ll know how it will proceed and how we can manage it better. We won’t get it right the first few times we meet the situation again but we will be better prepared. Each time we go through it, observe it and think about it, we’ll learn a little more about how to handle ourselves.
Know our memories
If we have lived for any number of years, we are going to have thousands of memories. Our memories can be a key influence on our attitude in our lives therefore we should get to know our memories. Most of these are filed away in the Forgotten file. They are not required to be remembered for any critical reason. They will only present themselves if we find ourselves in a similar situation at some time.
There a few key memories we hold on to which colour our lives for better and for worse. The only way we can judge if it is good or bad for us, is to ask the question, Do they bring any love into our lives? If the answer is Yes, they are beneficial memories. If the answer is No, we should look at changing those memories.
For example, if we have an unfriendly relationship with someone, we are going to have memories of them which remind us of the hurt, harm or injustice done to us by them. Every time we meet this person these memories pop into our head and the bad feelings that go with them flare up within us. This flare up only damages us, we are the ones who get burnt. The other person is probably unaware of our emotions.
We don’t have to relive the pain
How do we change this so we don’t get these flare ups? If we can realise that a person or situation causes these negative memories to flare up, we are part of the way to dealing with it. We have now accepted that these memories hurt us. Can we change them for something new and more beneficial to us? We don’t want to deny or devalue what we’ve learned from the situation. We can recognise that a person is not to be trusted, or will react in a certain way, or a situation will go in a particular direction if the circumstances are in place. We keep the knowledge we have learned but we don’t have to relive the pain every time come across it again.
If we see that we’ve learned something useful, we’ve begun to change our attitude and our memory of the person or situation. If we can add in a sympathy or compassion for the pain suffered by others involved in the same or similar situations, we are moving on to a healthier attitude. This new understanding gives us a different attitude and over time will quieten the emotions that used to flare up within us.
If we can take time to observe ourselves and get to know ourselves, we will begin to understand how we work in this life and how we can make our lives a little better.
Next week we’ll continue exploring our selves by looking at our mind, our intuition and our true self, Soul.
In the meantime, let’s get to know ourselves.
*Ed Parkinson
The Ancient Greek saying "Know thyself” was inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi and has been attributed to ancient Greek sages including, Plato, Pythagoras and Socrates. It is still relevant today. If we know how we work, that is, how we react to things, what makes us do the things we do, we will have a better understanding of how our life works.
There are different elements within us which we should try to get to know better. They are:
Our emotions
Our memories
Our mind
Our intuition
Our true self, Soul.
This week we’ll look at our emotions and memories, next week we’ll discuss our mind, intuition and Soul.
Our personal emotions
Our personal emotions are easy enough to see. Here’s a list of the basic ones we can experience on a regular basis.
Confidence
Fear
Happiness
Sadness
Love
Loneliness
Beauty
Horror
There are several levels within each of these emotions, which vary with the strength of the emotion.
Know our emotions
So how can we know ourselves through our emotions? Depending on the intensity of the emotion we may be able to observe ourselves as we go through them. For example, if we are angry which is often part of fear or sadness, we may be able to just observe ourselves as we go through the turmoil it brings. We could to do this at the time or later when we’ve calmed down. If we can look at ourselves as we go through the anger we can observe:
What triggers it,
How we react,
At what point do we loose control or
Can we keep control of it,
What happens next,
How we get back to some kind of calmness.
If there are others involved in the emotional exchange, how are they affected, are they part of the cause or the cure? How can we handle the same situation better in the future?
By taking this kind of a detached view, of this part of our life, we can get a better understanding of it. The next time we come across it we will have an idea of what is going on. We’ll know how it will proceed and how we can manage it better. We won’t get it right the first few times we meet the situation again but we will be better prepared. Each time we go through it, observe it and think about it, we’ll learn a little more about how to handle ourselves.
Know our memories
If we have lived for any number of years, we are going to have thousands of memories. Our memories can be a key influence on our attitude in our lives therefore we should get to know our memories. Most of these are filed away in the Forgotten file. They are not required to be remembered for any critical reason. They will only present themselves if we find ourselves in a similar situation at some time.
There a few key memories we hold on to which colour our lives for better and for worse. The only way we can judge if it is good or bad for us, is to ask the question, Do they bring any love into our lives? If the answer is Yes, they are beneficial memories. If the answer is No, we should look at changing those memories.
For example, if we have an unfriendly relationship with someone, we are going to have memories of them which remind us of the hurt, harm or injustice done to us by them. Every time we meet this person these memories pop into our head and the bad feelings that go with them flare up within us. This flare up only damages us, we are the ones who get burnt. The other person is probably unaware of our emotions.
We don’t have to relive the pain
How do we change this so we don’t get these flare ups? If we can realise that a person or situation causes these negative memories to flare up, we are part of the way to dealing with it. We have now accepted that these memories hurt us. Can we change them for something new and more beneficial to us? We don’t want to deny or devalue what we’ve learned from the situation. We can recognise that a person is not to be trusted, or will react in a certain way, or a situation will go in a particular direction if the circumstances are in place. We keep the knowledge we have learned but we don’t have to relive the pain every time come across it again.
If we see that we’ve learned something useful, we’ve begun to change our attitude and our memory of the person or situation. If we can add in a sympathy or compassion for the pain suffered by others involved in the same or similar situations, we are moving on to a healthier attitude. This new understanding gives us a different attitude and over time will quieten the emotions that used to flare up within us.
If we can take time to observe ourselves and get to know ourselves, we will begin to understand how we work in this life and how we can make our lives a little better.
Next week we’ll continue exploring our selves by looking at our mind, our intuition and our true self, Soul.
In the meantime, let’s get to know ourselves.
*Ed Parkinson
Hello.I am well into a boring sunday thanks for giving something to think about.This is a great story got me thinking,Thanks!.
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