Reaction Paper About Emotions

Summary: If you have unwanted emotions, this new approach will help you to deal with them in a healthy way. I explain why suppressing emotions doesn't work and outline a different approach that will restore your inner harmony.

I used to hate my emotions – mostly because I always felt bad about myself and my life. I wanted to be a smart guy, but my irrational feelings got in the way and kept me from doing what I thought I wanted to do. I tried and tried, but my emotions refused to go away, and after a long time of suffering, I realized that I had been completely wrong about emotions because they aren't irrational at all. Emotions are what makes life worth living and they can be a tremendous asset if you use them right.

If you stop fighting them and start following their advice, they will keep you on the path of your

When I was 15 years old, I played the (really great) game *Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic* where you learn the Jedi Code which starts with the following line: **"There is no emotion, there is peace."** I turned that line into my mantra (because who doesn't want to be a Jedi?) and kept repeating it whenever I felt bad, and it seemed to help. I started to feel a little better, and less sad, but what I didn't notice was that I also felt less joy and excitement.

My life started to turn into a gray, empty series of events and I started to question my existence. In response to the emptiness I doubled down on my efforts to suppress my emotions in an attempt to find inner peace, but I never succeeded because you can't suppress or numb emotions selectively; you can only suppress the good and the bad together and that leaves you feeling empty. So the more I tried to get rid of this feeling of emptiness, the stronger it