Roots, Branches and Offshoots

It is a long process which bears some similarities to increasing the strength of a muscle, but briefly described, it is a gradual shifting of how you feel about something by mentally altering the conditions under which it occurs.

Examples: a wedding, a forced wedding, a desirable wedding in times of disaster, somebody else’s wedding, a wedding twice postponed. Your emotional responses to this event, which is essentially the same, will be different.

What is the point of all of this?

If you can train yourself to feel the opposite emotion of what would come naturally under certain circumstances, you understand that you can feel any way you wish at any point in time.

Remember that being in control of what you want to feel does not mean that you forgo your emotions, especially your negative emotions.

Like a virtuoso, you play them in concert, elation and sorrow, joy and fear. You blend them; you amplify them; you expand their register; you project them outward.

You use the medium of your own emotions to paint a compelling picture of your inner world. All of your emotions are notes in that melody, yes, guilt, shame, sorrow, fear and doubt too, don’t restrict your range to major harmonies, the world sings melancholy tunes too.

You are asking whether you do not risk your saddled emotions getting the better of you.

The interesting part of this concern is that nobody ever worries about their unexamined, unfettered emotions running the gamut.