Emotion-Based Reactivity
When we operate from mind, when we are identified with mind, how do we process every moment? Let us consider one instance of the question “how do we process every moment?” which is “how do we process this very moment, the now?”
If an external life event occurs now, it is received by the sense organs and communicated to mind. The question of “how do we process this very moment, the now?” then becomes “how do we process the external life event?”
When we are identified with mind, we convert this very moment, the now into an internal life event, in the absence of an external life event.
Mind generates internal life events based on past experiences (immediate or distant past experiences, particularly those that didn’t go as per our expectations), present attributes (missing elements in the present), and future imaginations (what-if analysis about the future, generally negative).
The question of “how do we process this very moment, the now?” then becomes “how do we process the internal life event?”
When we are identified with mind, we do not discriminate external life event, the real one, from internal life event, the unreal one. We process them in the same, typical, way. The question thus becomes “how do we process life event?”
For each life event, mind evaluates the event data using desires/expectations as input and makes a judgment about the life event. Judgment is processed using emotional rules as the input and results in a state of mind, which again is an event by itself. This chain of event-process-event continues till mind reaches a final internal state, emotional reaction. This final state of mind either is processed using behavioral rules as the input resulting in an external response, behavioral reaction (typically in case of external life event) or continues only to be further processed by the mind along with the forthcoming life events (typically in case of internal life event). This process can be called as emotion-based reactivity.
Thus when we operate from mind, when we are identified with mind, we respond to every moment with emotions. These emotions can be categorized and grouped as FAB, Fear of the future, Anger for the past, and Boredom in the present.
Thus instead of living a fabulous life every moment, we live FABulous life.
What do we learn from the above explanation?
– Mind generates internal life events.
– Mind processes life events, both internal and external, using the past. This is so because the desires/expectations, the emotional rules, the behavioral rules and the predominant state of mind is determined by our past life experiences.
– Mind operates in an autopilot mode, processing each life event in the same typical way called emotion-based reactivity.
– Mind reacts/responds to every moment with emotions.
– Mind debits life energy account in an utterly wasteful manner when it generates internal life events and processes them, as though they are real.
Is mind at fault then? How can we see external life event for what it is? How can we stop mind from generating internal life event? Is there a better way to process life event? How can we start living a fabulous life every moment? These are the questions that would arise (in our mind!!!) for which we have to find solutions.
Mull over, do a root-cause analysis and see if you are able to see the problem and the corresponding solution.
