Hi Friend You're receiving this message because sometime in the distant past, you signed up for the Depression Home Study Course. To unsubscribe, simply click on the link at the bottom of the page. Today let's take a quick look at... What Makes Emotions Good or Bad? When dealing with emotions, we usually have fairly well-defined views of what makes an emotion good or bad. Good ones make you feel good, and bad ones make you feel bad! No mystery there. It's obvious. But is it really? I'd like to propose there are no 'bad' emotions. Oh, sure there's plenty of painful ones. Plenty of uncomfortable, unpleasant ones. Plenty of unwanted ones, like little children, little orphans that no one wants. And yes, we have 'homeless' emotions, too. All smelly and dirty, begging for your attention like bums on the side of the road with their 'Will Work For Food' signs. ("Just keep the windows rolled up, the doors locked, and look straight ahead… You'll be okay!") But bad? No, they're not bad. Every real emotion has value. Might not be much. Might be hard to find. But it's there. That homeless emotion you deny, the one so repulsive to you - even that emotion has a gift for you. That 'bum' emotion may be asking for a quarter, but it wants to give you a dollar. That's not 'bad'. That’s called 'misunderstood'. Of course, good and bad are subjective terms. They have no objective, precise values; each of us determines whether something is good or bad. Another commonly used classification of emotions is the continuum of 'positive' vs. 'negative'. Now we’re getting somewhere! Everybody knows positive is good and negative is bad. Uh oh. We’ve been down this road. If positive means good and negative means bad, then we're right back where we started from. We still have no objective, measurable standard. Actually, all emotions are positive. And all emotions are negative. A simple riddle, with a simple solution. An emotion becomes positive when you express it. That same emotion will become negative if you choose not to express it. That's the difference. You determine whether an emotion becomes positive or negative. Even love and happiness, when unexpressed, become negative and destructive. While fear and anger, when properly expressed, do indeed become positive and constructive. A constructive fear might just save your ass - to put it very bluntly. Understand - you have a bubbling flow - a well-spring - of pure unadulterated energy that flows into your being. It’s the 'precursor of emotion'… you might say. You choose - within certain limits - exactly which emotions you’re going to turn this flow of energy into. Then, you get to choose without limits whether to express it or not. (And often we pretend we don't have those choices!) Fortunately, a workable system of classification does exist regarding those good and bad emotions, and it's found in the nature of what each one does to you. Love expands. Love expands you, and love expands itself. Unite with love, and you both become more. Love becomes more, when you allow it to come into you; just as you become more. Loneliness, on the other hand, contracts. Fear contracts. Doubt contracts. Anger contracts you, and itself. Hurt contracts. Hurt makes you smaller, in some small way. (For a time, anyway. Certainly not forever.) While you're feeling a contractive emotion, you're lessened, to a certain degree. It might not be by much, but the potential to diminish yourself always exists with these kinds of emotions. Still, that bum's got a dollar for you. And he's only asking for a dime. You created him. You gave him life. And now that torpid emotion wants resolution. Express it. Let that homeless little orphan speak; give it a dime. Then take back the power you've given it, and take that dollar home with you. It's yours. Every emotion holds at least a little bit of your power. (That’s why they're not bad.) Your job is to keep the cycle going. Good or bad, positive or negative, constructive or destructive, expansive or contractive. Whatever you want to call it, just don't bottle it up. To express an emotion - FEEL it fully, and RELEASE it completely. Go into it, and walk out the other side. Take it into you, and then choose to let it go. 'Contract and relax.' Just like when you exercise. Expressing is 'good'! Repressing is 'bad'! Got it? Great! For more information on working with emotions, grab your copy of the e-book, "How To Create Your Own Reality". Just click on the link below. http://www.join-the-fun.com/bookletter.html Brought to you by Mark Ivar Myhre The Emotional Healing Wizard fiercely slaying your emotional dragons!