Feels real--is it?

   One of the things that caught me off guard often was the automatic way I assumed that because I had some particular feeling the thoughts I had about it were real. If I was angry it followed (in my mind) I had a good reason to be. If I was scared, was the threat real? Observing my reaction to things over time led to some interesting realizations.

My emotions, are real; whether the cause is real or not. My body responds chemically and my breathing changes.  The reality of the sensations brings a sense of reality to the reason(s) that flood my mind. While I might have seen this at times in my life I had not pondered how it was the underpinning to many unnecessary upsets. Feelings were often prompted by familiar signals that I reacted to before there was time to think about the situation. I could be angry because of an assumption I was making. The anger was real whether the assumption was true or not.

This finding for me opened a door to making changes I had not considered before. My emotions happen so much faster than my ability to think things through.  Letting this truth seep in has allowed me to shake lose of some of those automatic upsets I had not known how to release.