Is it possible to control your feelings?

[TruthFreedom]

I've been watching a lot of the enlightenment videos again, and last night it seemed as if I had a breakthrough, and I slept better than I have in ages. It was through watching the step-by-step guide to enlightenment. I felt very peaceful. Yet, I wake up, have my coffee, and yet again, the anxiety and sadness appears out of nowhere. I don't get it. Is it really possible to control the way you feel, or is it 100% outwith your control. Because if it is outwith our control then all this work seems pointless 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

I suppose I would need to know what you mean by "control". 

I only think it is possible to mildly influence them once arisen. But if we are talking "allowing" or "not allowing" I don't think so. Spiritual work has had a positive effect on my emotional regulation - which could be a measure of control. Again depends on definition 

Are you deterministic? Free will awakening? Dovetails with no-self

Edited 1 hour ago by Natasha Tori Maru

[LastThursday]

Think of it in the same way as breathing. Is it possible to control your breathing? Most of the time breathing is outside of your conscious control, but sometimes you become conscious that you can control it.

What about actors, can they conjure up feelings, how do they do it? And lastly, how many feelings can you feel at once, and does a new feeling crowd out an old feeling?

BTW I like your "outwith", I'll have to start using it.

Edited 1 hour ago by LastThursday

[Willy Phallicus]

Frankly I would be concerned if you weren't anxious or sad at times.   I think we're all looking down the double barrel of techno fascism and mob mayhem and it's very sobering.  I just try to remain aware of the fact that this reality is insane all around and that it's nothing personal.

It helps me to realize that this shit world really is just that fucking stupid and futile and disillusionment is only natural.

The goal is not to spare yourself the horror or save yourself from the suffering, nor is it to be redeemed so as to return to perfect bliss.  The goal is to make the suffering of existence productive.  To use it to give substance to the fluff that is you in order to forge your soul and liberate your spirit.  So while those feelings are uncomfortable and unwanted they are not without value.  Resistance just stokes their flames anyway.  Your soul is pointing you to something and you would do well to examine those feelings honestly with both your heart and mind.

This reality is given substance by something greater than it, but that Grace which transcends all understanding allows for us to overcome that which has been manifest in haste and limitation.  That's why the David Icke's "it's all an illusion hologram" is fucking stupid.  The hologram is a property of reality, not the other way around.  Reality is not a hologram, the body is not a computer, infinite love is not the only truth - these concepts are only embraced by fools and cowards who seek to diminish the nature of the challenge of existence because they are wounded and terrified that that which is in them is not greater than that which is in the world.

So yes, you can control them, to a degree - but you don't want to end up in a place where you are deluding yourself by avoiding the harshness of reality or the feelings that it gives rise too.  Seek to understand them instead.

[TruthFreedom]

22 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

I suppose I would need to know what you mean by "control". 

I only think it is possible to mildly influence them once arisen. But if we are talking "allowing" or "not allowing" I don't think so. Spiritual work has had a positive effect on my emotional regulation - which could be a measure of control. Again depends on definition 

Are you deterministic? Free will awakening? Dovetails with no-self

Well, after my original post, I remembered a technique I have used before which involves letting go of "needs" as they arise in the present moment. You sit and observe "needs" arising and let go of them one-by-one. It's a form of meditation which seems to give control over feelings of tension and anxiety. This, combined with the constant reminder that you are only ONE of 8 billion people seems to produce a measure of peace for me personally.

And when it comes to free will/determinism I am unsure if that is possible to figure out.

Even though I have had "no-self" awakenings, I still hold on to the possibility that there is someone in control. 

Perhaps "no-self" is an illusion, and what one really is, is the "controller"

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@TruthFreedom sounds like a sort of "allowing" accepting and letting go of feeling/emotion. Which is healthy processing. That process becomes like a default habit the more we do it. It was key to assisting my own emotional regulation.

Radical self forgiveness is a big one!

Edited 29 minutes ago by Natasha Tori Maru

[TruthFreedom]

4 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

@TruthFreedom sounds like a sort of "allowing" accepting and letting go of feeling/emotion. Which is healthy processing. That process becomes like a default habit the more we do it. It was key to assisting my own emotional regulation.

Radical self forgiveness is a big one!

My technique is based on the Buddhist notion that desire is the root of suffering.

For example, the desire to be good-looking. It produces much suffering because rarely is anyone completely satisfied with their appearance, and beauty fades anyway.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

7 minutes ago, TruthFreedom said:

My technique is based on the Buddhist notion that desire is the root of suffering.

For example, the desire to be good-looking. It produces much suffering because rarely is anyone completely satisfied with their appearance, and beauty fades anyway.

Yep aversion too - it causes equal suffering. Although aversion can be looked at as the desire depending on frame. 

All I can impart is that a byproduct of real spirituality - truth seeking - was emotional healing and dissolving of conditioning. I am ten fold more internally regulated. It does get easier. I never persued truth to heal. But fell into its gravity due to extreme suffering.

Godspeed to us both 🪽