Behaviorally...

"Emotion is a chemical that can either be released through expression or stored through repression."  -Me

Expression and repression are choices we make, in other words, behaviors.  Repression is non-expression.  It is a refusal to express.  Expression takes the energy of emotion and releases it to the world.  Repression takes that same energy and pushes it down inside.

In the very short term, repression can be a helpful emotional tool.  If your boss comes to you and gives you an assignment that you don't like, bursting out in tears is probably not the best solution.  It's probably a pretty good idea, if you wish to remain in the job, to repress that emotion until you get to a place where you can express in private.  And if you do find a place to express in private, then repression is just a handy tool.  The problem comes when repression becomes the main or only tool that is used to handle emotions.

For many people, repression is by far their most commonly used emotional tool.  When their boss gives them that assignment they don't like, they don't go find a place to cry or yell.  They just swallow their sadness or anger.  They push it down inside.  The problem is that there is very real energy tied to emotion.  When they repress their emotions, they are also repressing that energy.  My belief is that the energy gets stored in different locations in our bodies and, in high concentration, is a significant cause of disease.  This is a problem.

The obvious solution is to express.  But most people have difficulty with expressing their emotions.  And expressing in public, for most people, is out of the question.  These difficulties come from a taboo in our culture against expression.  If we want to build healthy lives and a healthy culture, we need to break that taboo.

In my opinion, the best way to break the taboo against expressing our emotions, is to express regularly.  And so I do.  But I recognize that this presents a significant difficulty for most people.  My recommendation is to start connecting to your emotions, even if you can only do so in private.  Find a private place to sit or lay down and try to feel what you have inside.  If you do this regularly, you will forge a strong connection to your emotions and will eventually be able to express them any time you choose.  This is very good for you and for the world.  As Thich Nhat Hanh says, "Peace in oneself, peace in the world".

Yes.

This is something I've wanted to make happen for a long time.  A real way to change the world for the better.  Hat tip to Feelit.  Many thanks to you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Like most holidays, Thanksgiving has some issues.  But it's a good reminder to be appreciative of the good things we have in our life.  Today, I am thankful for my wife and daughter.  I am thankful for my friends (including internet friends!).  I'm thankful for family. I am thankful for my daughter's friends.  I am thankful for her teacher.  I am thankful for always improving emotional health.  I am thankful for good physical health.  I'm thankful for the opportunity for expression that this blog gives me.  And many, many other things as well.  I hope that you have many things you are thankful for in your life.  May you be well.

Biologically...

I read once, and have confirmed over time through experience, that people get more sunlight outside on an overcast day than they do inside on the sunniest day.  If you live in Colorado or southern California, this probably doesn't matter much to you because you get plenty of sun.  But if you live in West Michigan or Seattle or any other place that doesn't get adequate sunlight, this can make a big difference to you.  The reason it's important is because low Vitamin D levels can cause depression.  And Vitamin D comes from the sun.  So if you're prone to depression, and you live in a climate that doesn't give you much sunlight, it is vitally important to get outside, every day.

There you go:  A really simple way to understand something important about your emotions at a biological level.  Now get outside, and smile!

Levels of emotional experience

Emotions are experienced at multiple different levels:  Biologically, behaviorally, and experientially.  I believe that many people think that because their experiences are unique, that makes their emotions about those experiences unique, and therefore, unknowable.  That there's no basis for comparison, so nothing can be learned from, or about, their emotions.  I believe that this is not only wrong, it's also incredibly damaging.  It prevents us from learning about how our emotions work on a biological and a behavioral level.  And there is much to learn about emotions on both the biological and the behavioral level!

I know a lot of people are taking a break from the world right now.

I understand that.  The most important thing we can do is to take good care of ourselves and those we love.  But I hope you will keep at least one eye on events, because things are not looking too good right now.  I've been writing quite a bit at The Weeping Face.  I hope you'll give it a look.

Where does responsibility lie?

This stuff is causing me emotion lately.  I think there are people who can separate themselves from this stuff, saying things like, "It's not a reflection on me."  And there are people who can't, saying "How could it not reflect on me?".  I think the former is more happy and the latter is more honest.  I really, really place value on happiness, but I don't know how to think "It's not a reflection on me" right now.

Take a few minutes to watch the video in the link from "Certain things in our country should disqualify you".  See how those people feel right now.  Does it reflect on you?

Here we go!

No place to start, but at the beginning.

What is an emotion?  Well, there's no easy, agreed-upon answer to that question.  I think the best definition would be something along the lines of, "an emotion is the chemical (hormonal) response that the body has to an emotion-causing event."

I believe there are two options for dealing with emotions:  We can express them or we can repress them.  

Expression of emotion is an action that requires the feeling and releasing of emotional energy.  The word "expression" has become a little problematic because many people believe they are expressing their emotions when they talk about their emotions.  If you are talking about your emotions, you are probably not expressing them because expression usually prevents talking.  If you are filled with anger or shaking with fear, then you are feeling your emotions.  If you move from there to crying, for example, then you are expressing, because crying releases the energy of emotion.

Repression of emotion happens when we do not express the energy of emotion.  I believe that energy is then stored at different locations in the body and is a very large cause of disease.*  There are many reasons for, and ways to, repress emotion.  I intend to speak about these at great length, in due time.

To recap, emotion is a chemical that can either be released through expression or stored through repression.  If you did nothing else in relation to emotions other than understand that last sentence, you would be well on your way to emotional health because that sentence gives you the tools to begin the journey to emotional well-being.  So I should say it again:

Emotion is a chemical that can either be released through expression or stored through repression.

We'll be coming back to that sentence. 



* I have read no studies about what happens to the energy of emotion when it is repressed.  I think an understanding of this process could revolutionize the understanding of disease.  If you ever come across any information on this topic, please, please make me aware of it.  I will be eternally grateful to you.

Where the hell am I?

My desire to get back to writing about emotions on a structural level has been building for a while now.  I want to write about the mechanics of emotions, how they work, because that's how you, the reader, can learn to handle your own emotions.  When I write about how I feel, it's mostly a "that's a great story" situation.  If it's really well-written, it might impact you, but it doesn't give you anything to use in your own life, at least nothing significant.

But how do you write about something so abstract as the mechanics of emotions when the nation is in the midst of such intense upheaval?  There's something very specific to write about!  Donald Trump's presidency scares the H-E-C-K out of most of the people on the planet!  And it should!  There's a lot to write about on that topic.

But when I think more clearly, I remember that we are in this situation because of emotions.  Half the country picked the bully to be on their team because they felt unsafe. That's crazy.  And I mean that in the most literal way.  It's psychotic.  Removed from reality. Because of this, talking about the mechanics of emotions is no longer an abstract concept.  It's something that a great many of us need to know about, right here and right now.

So that's what I'm going to do.  I'm going to use this blog as a means of protest and action.  I'll do my best to speak clearly and honestly about how emotions work, in the hope that it might help create an environment where people feel free to ask for help when they feel afraid, instead of enlisting the help of the school bully.

This shit's gonna get ugly

So what are you going to do?  If people of good conscience spend the next four years complaining about Trump's policies, in four years, he'll get elected again.  Complaining serves no one.  It is time to get our lives organized and prepare ourselves for the coming mess.  And the main thing that people of good conscience can do to prepare themselves is to achieve positive emotional health.

When things start going really poorly, if we're not emotionally prepared, we'll sit back in astonishment and do nothing.  Think about it.  What did you do this past Wednesday morning?  Stare at the wall in astonishment?  That's pretty much what I did.  And if it's not what you did, you're probably either not a person of good conscience, or more likely, you had to go to work.  It's pretty likely that at some point in the next four years, saying, "Oh well, I have to go to work.  No time to think about that" will not be good enough.  We will all be forced to make a decision about who we are.  And if you haven't prepared yourself emotionally for that moment, you might make the wrong decision.  Don't be that person.

"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" -Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"Playing the clown is not an easy task.  Clowns, I have come to believe, are placed upon the earth solely to fill the needs of others, while running perilously close to 'empty' themselves."  -Flavia de Luce

Flavia is the heroine of a series of kids books by author Alan Bradley, so it's not terribly deep stuff.  But it's well done and this quote gets at an essential truth about human beings.  That is that we have a finite amount of energy and it needs to be refilled on a regular basis.  If it isn't, we put ourselves in danger.

An internet friend of mine from DBB, bugman222, asked this morning, in relation to the U.S. election results,

"How do we even pretend like this is important right now?
I’m trying. I really am. I NEED something like this game to take my mind off all the darkness and uncertainty that is everywhere right now. I’m just not sure I have it in me."

I feel for bugman.  I have been asking myself the same questions this morning.  It's an awful day for our country.  But to try to answer bugman's question, I think we don't even try to pretend like it (basketball) is important.  It's not.  It never was.  It's a game.  I think what we need to do is to recognize that basketball, like a clown, fills us up.  It helps us to be whole so that we can face the horror of the world, no matter what that means.  Our job is to enjoy what it gives us with awareness that we still have to face the horror.  

I believe that too many people in this country walk around every day with unmet needs. They are "perilously close to 'empty'".  When a person does this, it can cause them to feel vulnerable.  Over time, those feelings of vulnerability wear on a person.  Most people look for anything that will make those feelings go away.  I think Donald Trump knows all of this and tapped into those feelings.  All the crazy things he says are designed to cause fear (such as the idea that all Mexican immigrants are rapists).  Then all he has to do is convince people that he'll save them (build a wall) and they flock to him.

By watching basketball, we fill ourselves back up and reduce or remove the need for a person like Trump to save us.  Since the only person we can ever really change is ourself, then this is the definition of responsibility.

Have we ever needed Propagandhi more than we do today?

Connecting the personal with the political since 1986.

This election should cause every single adult in this country to think about who they are.

President Obama has said, “I see a straight line from the announcement of Sarah Palin as the vice-presidential nominee to what we see today in Donald Trump, the emergence of the Freedom Caucus, the tea party, and the shift in the center of gravity for the Republican Party”.  I agree with this, but I don't think it goes far enough.  John McCain is not solely responsible for all of this.  And Hillary Clinton is almost as big a problem as Donald Trump.  We have all allowed this situation to come into being. Every one of us has played a role.  We all have responsibility for creating the circumstances that have allowed these two presidential candidates to be our only options. I hope every American will spend time over the coming weeks, months, and even years thinking about what they could have done differently to help avoid this catastrophe.

Personally, I think back to when George W. Bush was elected president, particularly the second time.  It made me so angry.  I said many things about him that, while perhaps true, still added to the vitriol in the American political scene.  Maybe if I had held my tongue it would have contributed to a healthier emotional climate and Trump and Clinton wouldn't be our candidates today.  And now I wouldn't be put in the position of trying to speak clearly about two candidates who I feel are so poorly qualified to be president, without adding to the nastiness surrounding them.

Everything we do impacts everything else.  Our choices do matter.  I hope this election will help people remember that.

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."  -John Muir

Let it be over!

Politics, sorta

"If there's a world here in a hundred years, it's going to be saved by tens of millions of little things.  The powers-that-be can break up any big thing they want.  They can corrupt it or co-opt it from the inside, or they can attack it from the outside.  But what are they going to do about ten million little things? They break up two of them, and three more like them spring up!"   

                                                                                           -Pete Seeger

This political season has brought me much pain and despair.  I believe that Hillary Clinton is a really bad presidential candidate.  One whom I would normally go out to vote against. And yet, she is so superior to Donald Trump that I will be voting for her and will be hoping fervently that she wins.  Everything I see about Donald Trump confirms that he is completely unfit to be President of the United States.  

I've come to see his candidacy as a moral problem, not just a political one.  How many times have I heard the saying, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"?  Many, many times is the answer.  Well, I can remember the past.  I've learned about Hitler.  And I have learned about the Japanese internment camps here in the United States as well.  I've learned about slavery and Jim Crow and what happens when people start to believe that a group of people is "less than".  Donald Trump sends up so many red flags for me, I could form my own color guard.  Shoot, I could have my very own parade. There is no reason to believe that a person who acts as he does while running for president will suddenly stop behaving that way when he becomes president.  He won't. He'll probably be worse.  Giving real power to a bully is not a good idea.  This makes me feel that I need to be taking action now, to prevent his presidency.  Not just waiting for it to happen and then claiming to be upset about it.  He's someone who could do real damage to this world.  This can not come to be.

But what can I do?  I can vote.  No problem.  What else?  Uh... uh...  Truly, there are no obvious answers.  So I need to look deeper.  Looking deeper points me in one very clear direction:  His followers.

Who are these people who support him?  What can they be thinking?  If it came out that he's a pedophile and a serial killer, would they change their minds about him? My guess is no, they wouldn't.  It shouldn't surprise you that I think the answer to this problem is emotional.  

Life is hard.  So many awful things happen so often, it's hard not to feel attacked by the world on a regular basis.  Donald Trump's political base is formed by people who feel attacked.  They don't understand why they feel attacked, so they look for an answer that makes sense to them.  And Donald Trump gives them that answer.  It's the "other". Anyone who is different is the cause of their suffering.  This makes them feel united against an enemy and strong in that unity.  It's not relevant that the "other" is no real danger to them.  What's relevant is that they feel attacked and fighting an enemy makes them feel strong and safe again.

When this kind of thinking is so dramatically impacting life at a national level, it becomes a real problem.  Is this what Germany was like during Hitler's rise to power?  Fear giving rise to bigotry, nationalism, violence?  I think it probably was.  

How do we stop something so amorphous as fear?  If you attack a person's fear, it will make them feel more vulnerable, and they will dig in even more.  That's how we got here. It does nothing productive.

It seems like we need to assuage their fear.  But how can that be done?  We've already seen that their fear is baseless.  How do you appease something that is not real?  I believe we need to ignore the actual fear, because it is baseless, and just try to help them feel safe.  This is, obviously, no easy task.  But if we all committed to acting in a compassionate way at all times, we could make an impact on the world.  People with irrational fears are highly changeable.  If we could start to create a more compassionate environment, they won't like it, but they'll still be impacted in a positive way by it.  

I know we're not going to change the outcome of the election at this late date through the use of compassion.  But what happens if he wins?  We'll have the same problem and we'll still have no way to go about fixing it.  This is how to fix it, because it addresses the real problem.  You can talk about the lunacy of building a wall between us and Mexico all you want.  It won't change the outcome.  But if we start to be more compassionate, particularly to the most fearful among us, we'll change our society and remove the conditions that bring people like Donald Trump to power.  

"First they came for the Socialists,
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak for me."

-Martin Niemöller

A little stopped up...

I have an incredibly strong desire to write about emotional structures.  However, that topic requires a lot of time to be able to write about it clearly and I don't currently have a lot of extra time.  Every day, I think "I want to write!", but nothing happens because I don't have the time to commit to that topic. My blog sits empty, while I have much to say.  I'm going to try to temporarily stop worrying about emotional structures and just start writing again.  I'll get where I need to be soon enough if I just get moving.  So, here I go.  Won't it be interesting to see if I do a good job?  Yes, yes it will.