Emotions Shroud Everything

Note to self: Emotions shroud hindsight and foresight. Emotions tend to surround you on all sides, so much so that you become blind to the past and the future, and merely scrutinizing the present you're in. Whether it's a joyous event, or a horrible tragedy, or juz an awful mess, the same rule applies: Emotions can trap you in the present.

I often feel overwhelmed when I'm going thru a whole lot of emotions within me, and it's definitely worse when they're negative. When anger stirs, everything about the particular guy is perceived as evil, annoying, awful, or at least, inferior to the self. When boredom strikes, everything seems dull and lifeless, and there seemed to be no way to squeeze out the fun around me.

But the worst of all negative emotions (at least to me) is despair. And sadly, it's one that I'm becoming rather familiar with. Everything appears bleak, every way out seems to be blocked, and shadows lie on every corner from my sight. However, all these are, usually, hardly the facts: they're merely my perception, which coloured my interpretation inside my head; just like how Dorothy and her friends thought everything in Emerald City are really green when in fact that's only bcuz they're seeing everything thru the green-tinted eyeglasses they're wearing. Reality is rarely as bad as a pessimist views it, and as good as an optimist inteprets. Reality is (most of the time) constant, while our emotions colour the interpretation.

Having said that, even with the knowledge of such phenomenon, it is hard to see truth thru the illusion coloured by our emotions. If we really think about it, things probably aren't as bad as we think (I'm focusing more on the negative side here), but the emotion stubbornly shrouds our view of the Big Picture. It requires a strong discipline, or perhaps a deep faith (or are they overlapped?), to conquer our emotions and perceive truth as it is, or at the very least, believe that the truth is not as we feel it to be.

We all know about this already bcuz when we look back at things after the storm is over, we realize that the situation was never that bad after all, but somehow, our vision that cuts thru time tends to easily get obstructed by our emotions. There never really is a "light at the end of the tunnel", bcuz the tunnel never existed! And the light has always been there!


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I looked back at my previous posts a year ago, and I'm surprised to find this entry which I've posted about a year ago, at March 13th, 2005. I find that it kinda fits with my current post, so I decided to repost it here:

"This too will pass.”

I was taught these words by my grandmother as a phrase that is to be used at all times in your life. When things are spectacularly dreadful, when things are absolutely apalling; when everything is superb and wonderful and marvellous and happy-say these four words to yourself.

They will give you a sense of perspective and help you also to make the most of what is good and stoical about what is bad.

- Claire Rayner