Choosing Emotions
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
You can choose emotions just the same way that you choose who you would like to spend time with, or what colors you would like to use in your painting. Emotions are like colors, or sound frequencies on a scale of notes. It is up to you what notes you want to play. You are not a slave to your emotions, nor are you bound to feeling them for any particular length of time. You can choose to feel anger for days. You can also choose to feel anger for three seconds. It is up to you how long you want to spend in any particular emotion. Next time when you are feeling anger, see how long it is before you can switch it consciously to another "note." At first it might take a while, but as you gain proficiency you can switch your emotions more quickly. This is the only difference between the master and the seeker. Again, Masters are not immune to feeling negative emotions. It is just that they recognize it as an illusion, an experience in the human dream, and can move to another emotion more quickly. You can do this too.
Moving from one negative emotion to a "higher negative emotion" is still a move in the direction of positive emotions. Esther Hicks, in her book Ask And It Is Given (2004), mentions that moving from the feelings of fear, grief, depression, despair, or powerlessness (22) into anger or rage (17, 19) is actually a movement into the higher emotional frequencies. According to Hicks, fear is a lower "note" on the scale than anger. Below is Esther Hicks' depiction (from page 114 of her book) of what an emotional scale might look like:
- joy/knowledge/empowerment/freedom/love/appreciation
- passion
- enthusiasm/eagerness/happiness
- positive expectations/belief
- optimism
- hopefulness
- contentment
- boredom
- pessimism
- frustration/irritation/impatience
- "overwhelment"
- disappointment
- doubt
- worry
- blame
- discouragement
- anger
- revenge
- hatred/rage
- jealousy
- insecurity/guilt/unworthiness
- fear/grief/depression/despair/powerlessness