Hello everyone. Today I want to write an opinion on something I know very little about. So read at your own risk!
Today I want to talk about feelings. This has been a hard area of my life to deal with. For years, I didn't want to feel anything because feelings brought with them a lot of hurt and not much joy. Now I am a business man so I definitely look at things in terms of return on investment and to me, if I let my feelings out then the bad ones definitely outweighed the good ones so why bother.
But then about 18 months ago, through reading a book that a friend of mine asked me to read, all those bottled up feelings came out after 30+ years of holding most of them in. Let me tell you it was an experience. I cried for a long time. Then I just hurt. Then I was so overcome with emotions that I freaked out a friend of mine by asking her out. It was quite a mess and I realized now that I liked part of it but I really didn't like another part of it.
I liked feeling things because I finally felt alive. Yes, it is possible to go through life feeling down and depressed and still be successful on the outside. I did that and there were times when I had some feeling but I kept them as muted as I possibly could. Why, because the ups didn't justify the downs. But I did like all those feelings because at least I was alive.
Now I have heard people say that we can't trust our feelings and that was easy for me for years because I suppressed all of them I could suppress. But that statement is actually the point of my writing today. I finally realized that while I enjoy all these new feelings, I can't rely on my feelings alone to make decisions about my life. That is probably a "duh" statement for most of you but for me it is a revelation.
There are times in our lives when we want something so bad on the inside that we will do almost anything to get it. Have you ever wanted to go out with a girl or do something so that she will notice you? I have. As a matter of fact, let me tell you a funny story from my time at TCU.
See during my senior year, I had a girlfriend, A. Now A was a very nice person and I wasn't. I was very selfish and only wanted what was good for me without really giving any thought to what was good for her. Eventually, she figured this out and decided it was time to move on. But since I had never really had a serious girlfriend and wanted to keep one (I wasn't in love with her but I was in love with the idea of being in love.) I decided that I was going to do anything to get her back.
So one night, I went over to her dorm and called her. A friend of hers was there and they came down to check me out. I made up some stupid story of being hit in the head and faked a concussion. Or at least I did my best to fake one. I have never had one and didn't really know the symptoms of one at the time so I gave it my best guess. Why? For sympathy of course. I guess I hoped that she would take me back. Well ultimately she took me to my parent's house. Now my dad who used to be an ambulance driver took one look at me and knew I was faking it. Needless to say, I didn't get the girl back.
Why did I do such a stupid thing? My emotions told me to. Now just today, I realized while having emotions is great, I can't allow myself to be ruled by them
That's another Opinion of the Minion
Today I want to talk about feelings. This has been a hard area of my life to deal with. For years, I didn't want to feel anything because feelings brought with them a lot of hurt and not much joy. Now I am a business man so I definitely look at things in terms of return on investment and to me, if I let my feelings out then the bad ones definitely outweighed the good ones so why bother.
But then about 18 months ago, through reading a book that a friend of mine asked me to read, all those bottled up feelings came out after 30+ years of holding most of them in. Let me tell you it was an experience. I cried for a long time. Then I just hurt. Then I was so overcome with emotions that I freaked out a friend of mine by asking her out. It was quite a mess and I realized now that I liked part of it but I really didn't like another part of it.
I liked feeling things because I finally felt alive. Yes, it is possible to go through life feeling down and depressed and still be successful on the outside. I did that and there were times when I had some feeling but I kept them as muted as I possibly could. Why, because the ups didn't justify the downs. But I did like all those feelings because at least I was alive.
Now I have heard people say that we can't trust our feelings and that was easy for me for years because I suppressed all of them I could suppress. But that statement is actually the point of my writing today. I finally realized that while I enjoy all these new feelings, I can't rely on my feelings alone to make decisions about my life. That is probably a "duh" statement for most of you but for me it is a revelation.
There are times in our lives when we want something so bad on the inside that we will do almost anything to get it. Have you ever wanted to go out with a girl or do something so that she will notice you? I have. As a matter of fact, let me tell you a funny story from my time at TCU.
See during my senior year, I had a girlfriend, A. Now A was a very nice person and I wasn't. I was very selfish and only wanted what was good for me without really giving any thought to what was good for her. Eventually, she figured this out and decided it was time to move on. But since I had never really had a serious girlfriend and wanted to keep one (I wasn't in love with her but I was in love with the idea of being in love.) I decided that I was going to do anything to get her back.
So one night, I went over to her dorm and called her. A friend of hers was there and they came down to check me out. I made up some stupid story of being hit in the head and faked a concussion. Or at least I did my best to fake one. I have never had one and didn't really know the symptoms of one at the time so I gave it my best guess. Why? For sympathy of course. I guess I hoped that she would take me back. Well ultimately she took me to my parent's house. Now my dad who used to be an ambulance driver took one look at me and knew I was faking it. Needless to say, I didn't get the girl back.
Why did I do such a stupid thing? My emotions told me to. Now just today, I realized while having emotions is great, I can't allow myself to be ruled by them
That's another Opinion of the Minion
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