Think before you Act

                                               

Feelings are just Feelings

Feelings are reactions to some stimuli we go through. It is a response to a certain action or deed done to one. Most often we think our feelings are constant and we have to react a certain way to a certain thing and if you do not then there is something wrong with you. Well certain emotions may appear to be automatic like when one dies we feel sad and some end up crying or mourning, or when we win a lottery we become joyful and happy, it is almost automatic.

However, did you know between the action of the stimulus and the response you gave there is a split second decision you make of how you are going to react??

Maybe not, you have never even thought about it or never even heard of it. But yes, there is a choice we make on how we respond to any stimuli. This might sound such a big lie but why do you think Jesus said “If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also. And if anyone takes away your coat, don’t hold back your shirt either.”? Or “love your enemies…”? how can one achieve this?

This is because if I hit you, you have a decision to make, to either get angry or not, if you get angry you can choose to hit me back, abuse me or report me. If you choose not to get angry you can forgive me or even allow me to hit you on the other cheek and walk away. The choice is yours. If one becomes your enemy for whatever reason, you have a choice to hate them or love them. Jesus told us to always make the good choice, love, forgive and so on.

OK in other words, why do we always advice people to not react negatively but rather positively to a situation if there was no choice to make between the situation and the reaction?

The truth is that we are always making split second choices every single moment of our lives, and we hardly ever notice that we are doing it. There is nothing you do that you have not chosen to do even if you do not realize that you have chosen it. Every action in our body is controlled by the brain. So nothing goes or happens unaware. There is a decision to be made even when someone hurts you and that’s why counselors tell us to stay calm first, why? to enable you to think longer on how to react, what emotion or feeling to respond with.

Let us take the example of Moses, when the Israelite's in the wilderness were grumbling and complaining about their sufferings in the wilderness he got really angry and instead of speaking to the rock as God had commanded him, he hit the rock which later came and cost him his chance to enter Canaan, simply because he did not think before reacting. he bowed down to his emotions and acted upon them.

Whenever you are subjected to any stimuli, maybe a lie, heartbreak, abuse or whatever just know before you react, you have a choice to make, choose wisely.

"A moment of Patience in a moment of Anger saves you a thousand moments of Regrets"