On a rondom Tuesday night, two of my friends and I went out for dinner. When I came home last night I just realised what a privelage to have the opportunity to sometimes just be me and have people in my life who think like me and dream like me and actually understand my job and working environment.
I have previously chatted about emotional tracking and my attempt to give this a try. I have however asked myself quite a few times why I have this need to put in the time and effort and continue going on this self-involved journey time and time again? Why is this a concept that has resonated with me so much? Why am I bothered with things that a lot of people do not even acknowledge? Why is my overthinking mind overthinking the overthinking?
Jennifer Chesak wrote an article for Healthline which explained the motions and motivation for organising your feelings. And I have to admit that she managed to write what I have been trying to explain beautifully.
The little spiral goes like this: Emotions affect behavior because it influences our logic and productivity. In turn it determines how we treat ourselves and others. Thoughts influence our feelings which influence our actions. If we do not check in with our emotions every now and again we end up carrying around a lot of things that are not serving us, are unnecessary or may not even be true.
By trying to identify the feelings I am able to identify patterns, exaggerated emotions and evaluate these for their truth and validity. And in this I may be able to change my way of thinking and even change some patterns.
This is a slow process and something that I am still finding the perfect fit for, but in this effort, I have gained so much in mindfulness. If this is something that you are interested in exploring please read the full Healthline article. And if like many you feel that this is unnecessary and a little self-involved, please feel free to ignore this post.