Emotions – how they roll

Funny thing about emotions, they really make you sure that you are right. If  you are scared, you have greater certainty that there is threat or danger. If you are mad, no one is going to be able to talk you out of it. You will feel so sure that you are likely to act on  those thoughts.

Now there is just one teensy weensy little problem. When you are in the midst emotions, especially intense ones, you are generally wrong. The more you are sure you are right in terms of how you see it, the less right you likely are.

So there must be some real survival value in being inaccurate but decisive. 

Maybe it toughens us up to get it wrong initially, really tests out commitment to keep at it,  and acts as a like a tee does in golf for follow up attempts that have a better chance of being accurate than the initial one that was sparked by emotion.

I got excited about the idea of my family , all six of us, going on an outing this weekend. I was going to make my kids and we were going to be a family dammit. I was emotional. I told my wife I wanted all of us to go on a trip that was more suited to our two youngest. She was reluctant and not as enthused about the forced participation of teenagers. Two sides of the emotional pendulum. Neither of us really that accurate in our perceptions. Basically she is still pretty sure she is right, and so am I , but the main thing is that we are talking, because neither of us can do a family thing without the cooperation of the other, so being RIGHT is really sort of a side issue to making decisions.

Emotions start things off like a roller coaster, they are like gravity on  a steep slope, and that initial energy has carryover that can get channeled in more nuanced and effective ways FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!