Daily Gratitude: This is probably the most important lesson about emotions that i’ve ever learned. Understanding it can help free you from the “prison” of your emotions – feeling as if you’re out of control. Once you realize there are two components to your emotions, it’s easier to handle them. Sort of like all the “chunking down” I talk about. So, what are the two parts? Just as this quote says. 1) You can’t stop them from coming and 2) your response. In fact, many of us get into trouble trying to stop them from coming. Then they behave like a pressure cooker, building up steam over a certain time (seconds, minutes, days, years) to the point where the pressure has to be released and “Bam” you explode. This happens not just with anger but with the other emotions as well. All the time you’ve been stuffing them like a Thanksgiving turkey, they are being processed by your body and nervous system – result: illness and/or pain. I have first hand experience in this. It’s not something I’m proud of but definitely something I learned from – thank goodness. I’m finally, after all these decades, learning to feel them but i still have a very long way to go. What I am also getting better at is controlling how I respond to those feelings/emotions. Once i know I’m feeling anger, i know that i can either express it or not. That is a choice that IS up to me. That control factor that we all cherish. But, in the case of emotions, this is the one place where control is good. Try to observe your emotions over the coming holiday period and see if you can identify them (i can only do basic ones still) and then see what your response has been. If you like that response, you can continue to react that way. if you don’t, then you can change it. it will take practice but you’ll be happy you put in the effort. Think of other things you do out of habit or discipline. Make this observation and evaluation a “practice” just like the other practices in your life.