Your Emotions Are The Driving Force Of Your Life

Humans are emotional beings who learned to think a little over a hundred thousand years ago. Today, the power of your emotions often still precedes conscious thoughts. They have always been the driving force, a series of processes that guarantee human survival.

This is not always an easy idea to work through. That’s because many people prefer to think they have complete control over their actions and decisions. Yet a powerful universe of emotions directs much of your behavior, although you are not always aware of it.

Let’s think about this for a moment. You wake up in the morning in a certain mood. Sometimes you feel motivated, while other times your energy is low. Whatever your emotions, the way you feel affects your entire day.

The power that drives every step you take, big or small, is filtered by emotions. While it is true that we try to rationalize our decisions afterwards, emotions are the primary driver and they leave their mark.

Moreover, you cannot deny that what you buy, for example, is motivated by your emotions, just like your social and emotional relationships. The transcendence, penetration and complexity of emotions determine everything you do and the way you relate to your environment. This is an undeniable fact.

Your emotions are the driving force of everything you do

The idea of ​​taking control of your emotions is standard in almost every self-help book. The books (and the general public) often use words like “manage” and “control.” When you see those words, it’s easy to think that emotions are like, say, cars that you just need to know how to drive.

If that’s the case , you can’t manage or control something if you don’t understand what you’re dealing with. To that end, neurologist Antonio Damasio has written books such as Looking for Spinoza and The Strange Order of Things , which shed some light on the subject.

They want you to do well and survive

An emotion is basically a chemical and neural response to a stimulus. It’s your brain response to a stimulus that requires some kind of action on your part.

For example, you see a snake. You know it can be dangerous, so you move away from the snake without thinking. This internal chemical reaction causes changes in your body with one goal in mind: to help you perform the right behavioral response.

The purpose of this emotional force is to help you respond to things that are happening around you. It ensures your survival and it helps you to return to homeostasis – that is, to a state of balance and well-being. That said, most people have emotional problems because they don’t know what their emotions are telling them.

Fear, sadness, anger, frustration… Many of these emotions that we label as ‘negative’ also serve a specific purpose. They are there to warn you that something is wrong and that you need to respond. However, it is easy to leave your emotions there in the depths of who you are, and let them disturb your balance and well-being.

Emotions, feelings and thoughts

Emotions always come before feelings and often precede your thoughts. In Damasio’s book Looking for Spinoza and Francisco Mora’s How the Brain Works, the authors talk about the importance of understanding the difference between emotions and feelings. Emotions, they explain, come from the body, while feelings come from the brain.

The first thing you experience is emotion. It is the first reaction to everything that happens to you. The mental experiences that bring about these changes in your body is what shapes your feelings. Feelings can be a motivating force or a stumbling block.

In the last stage of human evolution, we have learned how to better understand and control our emotions. Due to the development of the frontal and prefrontal lobes, people are aware of feelings and emotions. That has shaped more refined, creative, rational and powerful behavior.

After all, remember that you cannot separate emotions and thoughts. Together they are the driving force that propels you through life. Emotions controlled by thoughts tend to form innovative and positive behaviors.

Your emotions should be your allies, not your enemies

You cannot deny that emotions are the driving force of your life. For a large part, it is your emotions that determine your behavior. Likewise, it is your feelings that give you hope and revitalize you when they align with your thoughts.

That’s why it’s important to not only know what an emotion is, but also how to manage, channel and make it work in your favor.

This is not an easy task. It requires time and self-awareness. You must be connected to your inner self and respond in an appropriate way. As Daniel Goleman so aptly explains, people have two thoughts: one that thinks and the other that feels. Happiness and true well-being manifest when your thinking and feeling thoughts work together.