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Originally Posted by coLLege kid07  It's not that you "choose" to feel bad or angry or upset....it's that you "choose" how to deal with it. "Oh I'm feeling anger inside of me...oh well" (something to that degree). |
I would say it's not so much choosing your emotion as deliberately choosing thoughts that feel good when you think them. If you've been alive for awhile, you probably have a pretty good feel for what kind of thoughts create which emotions.
For instance, this being sensitive to remarks made by others thing. When someone makes a remark, you're not forced to feel any particular emotion; it's not like you are hardwired to feel x emotion when y event happens, not even the death of a family member. You are free to choose the thoughts that you think about the event, and you are free to let thoughts choose you, too, if you want. I think people who judge themselves or others to be overly sensitive and overly emotional are just allowing thoughts to think them, rather than thinking their thoughts deliberately. Nothing wrong with that, nothing to change. And if you choose to deliberately think thoughts that feel good when you think them, you generate feelings that feel good when you feel them.
When someone makes a sarcastic remark towards you and you would prefer not to feel hurt or offended, you can't change what the guy said -- that's already done. If you argue with the reality of what has happened, you'll probably end up frustrated and upset. You can change your habitual thoughts about the remark, however. In deliberate thought, you have the power to be free.
You are the only person with the power to set yourself free.