The Roller Coaster of Emotions
Is your mood dependent on events that happen during your day? One minute you’re carefree and laughing. The next minute you’re depressed, angry, jealous, frustrated, or unhappy. Then you’re happy again. Any number of things could have triggered the instantaneous changes in your mood, which we experience as an emotional roller coaster. Perhaps someone said something you took personally or in a negative way, even though it wasn’t meant as either. Unhappy. Then you received an email that approved your two-week vacation time. Happy. Then maybe someone looked at your partner in a way that didn’t suit you because you are easily threatened by many things. Unhappy. But then you opened your mail and found a birthday check for $100 in it. Happy again. Up, down, up, down—roller coaster.
These drama-filled, emotional events happen on and off throughout the day putting us on an emotional roller coaster we didn’t pay to get on in the first place. We often blame people and events for our emotional outbursts and mood swings, but they are not to blame. We can’t even blame ourselves. To find out why we live this way, we have to look deeper—at the root cause—so we can get off this stressful, unhealthy ride once and for all.
The root cause of our emotional outbursts including the drama, the mind-created stories and the unhappiness, comes from our trained, or programmed, belief that we are not good enough. This single belief scares the daylights out of us. When we believe we are less than others, we also believe there is something wrong with us. It is a painful life to live, indeed.
This belief in lack and the resulting fears keeps us on high alert as we move throughout the day. With this belief at the helm, we treat small and large events the same way—with lots of screaming, crying, sadness, exasperation, elation and so on. In this state of mind, we say and do things we would never otherwise say or do. Guilt, resentment, separation from loved ones and regret are all partners in this game of the mind-made self. It is time to uncover the emotional roller coaster and break free so we can live the life we truly want to live.
Who is Reacting?
We have already learned that the programmed belief that we are not good enough, coupled with fear, drives us to stay on high alert throughout the day, reacting to the smallest events in life as if they are massively important, personal and hurtful. But it’s important to ask the question: Who is reacting?
The persona who reacts in this state is not you—well not the authentic, true you. The reactor is the false self, the ego, the one who is finite, or limited, in nature. This is not the real you or the real me, though it appears that we are because we have been trained to believe we are. Remember, beliefs are not truths. This false self requires labels, roles, conditions and stories to be experienced—all of these are highly limited in scope. Without them, the false self does not exist.
To understand this better, you could write down a description of yourself. If you did, you would see adjectives that are supportive of beliefs, thoughts, ideas, roles and conditions—all taught to you, none creative, authentic, or original. And all of these are used to either project the image you want others to see, project the image you wish to see or both. Projections aren’t people—they are concepts. You are not a concept.
The truth is, you have been told who you are—shaped and molded into a false persona that had your name slapped on it—but it’s not you. The one truly you are can’t be described, seen or limited in any way.
Get Off the Roller Coaster with Truth
Right about now, the false self might just stop reading this, say it is ridiculous or make some other blocking move. What is the false self blocking? The truth about who you really are. Why does it want to block the truth? Knowing this false self exists allows you to ask a deeper question: Who am I if I am not the one reacting? The truth means the end of the false.
Who are you? You are an unlimited being, the creator of everything—all events and experiences—the one who cannot be described. Why is this important? If you remember the truth about who you really are, you are no longer a slave to lack and fear. Without a belief in lack and fear, all other beliefs, thoughts, ideas, roles, concepts and conditions connected to the false persona evaporate. When this happens, you are in a state of pure truth. In this state, which is the same as pure love, there is nothing to react to. You are no longer a slave to the false. You are no longer a slave to its emotions. The emotional roller coaster falls apart.
You might not immediately remember that you are the creator of everything. But I will ask you, Who doesn’t remember this pure truth? Surely not the creator, the one who is truth and the one who even created the experience of falseness. If you don’t remember who you are, you will. The false self will work to keep you from that, but once the light of truth begins to shine on the false, remembering is inevitable.
What can you do about this? Nothing really. However, if you feel you must do something, begin paying attention to when and how you react. The most powerful question you can ask in these moments is: Why did I create this event? In asking that question and allowing the truth to come through, meaning you don’t use trained beliefs, thoughts, ideas, stories, roles and concepts to answer, you will remember who you truly are. Know that the one you have always been, the everlasting, unlimited consciousness, is still here today—waiting for you to remember. Remembering is life-changing. Remembering is peace.