Which emotion is your greatest asset?
Emotions help to guide our decision-making process. Emotions also bring passion and motivation into our lives. If we avoid or deny those feelings, we are cutting ourselves off from our most significant source of power.
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17 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.All of them. Emotions are the immediate reaction to your situation.
How you manage them and what you do with them is what is important.
So reason and rationality that allows me to manage my emotions is my greatest asset.
Uncorrugated
Level 7
Feb 8, 2018
0
My abrupt outburst. I call it passion. Especially happens when I'm working on one of my bikes or switching out the mower deck to the snow blade, and vice versa, on the John Deere. I have no patience for the mechanical aspects of life when it comes to especially tight areas with my big hands and fingers. Or when the manual doesn't properly go with my edition of the product I own. I often find myself cussing stupid shit I deal with from co-workers also. I even find myself often cussing at myself. I always cuss at Lewis Black for the fact he probably makes millions doing what I do on a fucking daily basis! God dam fucking Jew! Mary loves to laugh at me. Being seconds later I always throw some funny analogy to what I was just cussing about out. Which she then tells me she's laughing with me.
William_Mary
Level 8
Feb 8, 2018
1
But we know inside our ladies are laughing at us just a little.
I am a Vulcan, I have no emotions. Logic is what I use in making decisions.
noworry28
Level 8
Feb 7, 2018
3
I wish more people were like you. you realise you may get some cling ons
Some are comfortable with showing emotion, others can be reluctant to show any because they are taught at such a young age that it is a sign of weakness. Some of us carry our emotions on our sleeve and let it rule their lives. For me, it is passion and compassion. But keeping that balance between head and heart is a very tough thing to do.
mistymoon77
Level 9
Feb 7, 2018
1
While l agree that we shouldn't avoid or deny our feelings, we also shouldn't get wrapped up in them. We should experience them and let them go.
That having been said, l can admit that l have, in the past, used anger as a source of strength. Fear, too. But if I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, I think I would have made different choices. The strength I found didn't necessarily serve me. It trapped me.
If pressed, I'd say my greatest strength comes from my vulnerability. It's not exactly an emotion, and even though it feels like an oxymoron, it's my truth. I've been learning to honor it.
Nottheonlyone
Level 7
Feb 7, 2018
1
Emotion has often been an obstacle to my feeling successful at work and in relationships as I have had depression most of my life. It seems like I feel many things too deeply, but that can often be a gift as well.
TerriCity
Level 7
Feb 7, 2018
1
I don't know if this will help or pertains to you, but this is something I read that hit home for me.
When we feel negative emotions, it’s a message that what we are currently doing is not working. It could be the way we perceive the situation, or it could be the situation itself. If we cannot change our perception, then we will naturally move away from the painful emotions that we have linked to that situation. When we feel positive emotions it’s a message that what we are currently doing is probably something we should move toward or cultivate.
You overestimate the role of emotions. If we are truly intelligent people, our greatest asset is the ability to derive meaning from experience and learning -- the ability to build and use patterns of meaning which we cab use to interpret and respond effectively to the world we encounter. Emotions can -- but do not need to -- get in the way of that.
wordywalt
Level 9
Feb 7, 2018
1
I disagree with respect. If I understand you correctly, you're saying that a higher form of meaning is found when we place, experience and learning before emotions. I would argue that there is no meaning without emotion and being driven to achieve these things only happens through emotion. If I have misunderstood you or if you think I'm incorrect, please explain. I would be interested in seeing your logic.
@paul1967 We always attach emotional meaning to the cognitive patterns of meaning we construct -- sometimes strong emotion (positive or negative), sometime mild bemusement. But what matters is the effective cognitive structure or pattern of meaning we have constructed. If the emotional attachment or aversion is too strong, it can lead to unadaptive or destructive behavior.
@splittingzero I disagree totally. Meaning is definition or the formation of a cognitive structure.I have NEVER in my life used the word meaning in an emotional sense.
@splittingzero, in my experience there is a clear distinction between "meaning" & "emotion". "meaning" is the result of a narrative that i derive out of an experience, & can vary individually. "emotion" is a bodily sensation i derive from an experience, & as there are 4 basic groups of emotions only, they apply to humans equally & are easily understood: anger, fear, sadness & lust. so i can say that i've had an experience that caused an angry EMOTION in my body, which i recognized & explained as being in disagreement with x, which MEANS i gotta put some space between x & me.
not heeding emotions is to short-circuit life - & we know what that results in. bang!
Empathy and anger...i feel others distress & anger makes me try & do something about it.
AnneWimsey
Level 9
Feb 7, 2018
2
I'm pleasantly surprised to see someone recognize anger in a positive light. I think most people view anger as a negative emotion, and it can be, but it doesn't have to be. I encourage it when it's under control as a very positive motivator. It's motivated me more than most other emotions
@AnneWimsey & @paul1967, i wholeheartedly second that!
I'm torn between apathy and ambivalence. 
resserts
Level 8
Feb 7, 2018
5
Actually, ambivalence is awful. Everybody thinks it means you don't care, but it really means you care so much about your options that you can't make a decision. It's torture.
@Nottheonlyone Hence why I'm torn.
Well played! 
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