The Seeds Of Our Moods

All things come from seeds, all plants and living beings, eggs are seeds.

If every thing originates from a seed, and thoughts and emotions are things, then thoughts too, come from seeds.  The proof that thoughts and emotions are real things is in their effect on our physical body.  Don’t emotions and thoughts cause some physical effect?  Is not stress felt in tense muscles, or anger felt in physical discomfort, or love as butterflies in the stomach or other tingles?

In order for something to have a physical effect, it must have a form of its own.  We must not limit our conception of existence to material substance simply because that is all we can see and touch.

The question is what are the seeds of our thoughts and emotional reactions.  In exploring what sets off physical reactions due to emotional situations, be they positive or negative emotions, we will find that often  the initial reaction is set off by something someone said, words.

There are of course moments such as being in an airplane upside down and it starts falling through the sky when there is no need for words to set off emotions, however I can say from experience, that that event does not need to set off fear if you understand the situation and have the ability to recover from it.  Fear is feeling out of control and in the mercy of something other than yourself, feeling helpless.

Anger is often spurred from a fear.  Fear or anger can be caused by being controlled without one choosing ones reactions. To eliminate anger we need to learn how not to be effected or manipulated by others.

Back to the seeds of our emotions.  If words are what set off our emotions most of the time, and in our normal interactions that is really the main means of interaction that we use, how do those words take root and take power over our feelings, and how can that be prevented.

If we want to eliminate all plants from a forest or garden, one could do so by removing all the seeds.  If there where no seeds, there would be no plants.  However, if there where plants and they left some traces of roots, then they would also grow back again.  But as they grew back, we could find that root and remove it. Eventually, all the plants would be gone.

There are two ways of preventing these weeds from growing, by removing all the roots, and by not planting or fertilizing more seeds.

Our emotions are the basis of our mental state.  Whatever emotion we feel is translated to our conscious mind and interpreted in a way that we can express and understand the emotion.  They then effect our thoughts, words and actions.

Let us start with the roots.  Every thought and emotion, like a plant, needs food to grow.  Cut off its food supply and it will eventually die, although that may take a long time, but eventually, it will die.  The food of our mental state is thought born from emotions, positive or negative, they feed the seeds that grow into fear or pain which causes anger or, the love which brings joy.

Think about some time when you where in a good mood, feeling fine, and someone said something that twisted you the wrong way, got you a bit upset.  The more you thought about it, the more upset you got, the more angry you felt.  A seed was planted in fertile soil and you fed it with thinking about it, turning it over in your mind, paying attention to it, and it grew.  This goes for positive emotions as well.  If you are feeling down and someone says something nice, then as you think about that, you feel better and better.

The cause of our thoughts and emotions are seeds, those seeds are words, and they need to be fed attention and thought to grow.  Simply understanding this can help you eliminate negative emotions and increase positive ones.  The practice is simple to understand but takes repeated effort.  However, the more you practice the easier it gets.  Simply notice your negative emotions or thoughts and do not feed them.

If you are thinking about something that is negative or upsetting you, then deliberately change your thoughts.  Put on some happy music, play a sport, watch a funny movie, anything to deliberately influence your thoughts.

Stop Planting More Seeds! The Exercise.

The first step is to stop from speaking anything negative.  Simply do not engage in negative talking.  When people speak of past relationships, about that horrible partner, doesn’t the anger build the more we speak?  Just do not speak about anything negative.  Certainly you will find that you have much less to talk about, but eventually you will have other interests to fill that space.  That is simple, do not engage in negative talking.  There may be some value to venting, but that often adds fuel rather than vents buildup, there is a balance that one can find.

Thinking is the same, try not to think about anything negative.  When a negative thought comes to your mind, use as much effort as you can to change the subject to a positive one. In many mystical practices, avoiding gossip is said to be imperative to a peaceful life.  This is where meditation practice as a training of the mind to place the thoughts one chooses in the consciousness is useful.

What else can you think of if not a bitter or negative memory, something positive of course. The mind is never empty, we may not notice what it is thinking about at every moment, but it is always on some thought. Or better yet, and much more towards the further improvement of the quality of your life, is to focus your attention on what is in front of you now, what are you doing at that very moment rather than any past memory or day dream.  Give that your full attention and you will find that any negative emotion or thought will instantly vanish.

Now, that sounds simple yet one thinks that it is very difficult to achieve.  That is because we normally do not possess the ability to do this, but that ability can be acquired by certain exercises just like any other skill.  The practice of self observation is one method of developing the strength and ability to watch your thoughts.

The mind is interesting, it appears to be able to concentrate on many things at once, but with careful observation one will find that this is not the case.  The mind can only think of one thing at a time, but it has the ability to switch between thoughts so quickly that one believes one is thinking of many things simultaneously.  It is the same as a movie.  What looks like motion is actually still photos moving in front of the projector light.  Still images appear to be moving due to the speed they change.

If words are the seeds of our emotions, let us now examine what words actually are and how they effect us.  Please refer to my lesson “Understanding Words”.