I have always wondered, “Who am I? Why am I here?”

Am I a father, son, husband, doctor, good person, and am I all of the above?

I might believe in all the above superficial identities that I hold, but essentially, I am an emotion. Emotion brings me alive and is the reason why I do whatever I do.

Practically everything I do carries an emotional charge (or currency), and this is how we do business in this world—with “emotional dollars.”

I might not always work for money, but I  always do things that give me more emotional dollars. This is why I volunteer or do charity work. I will even continue a job I don’t like or stay in an unrewarding relationship as long as my emotional dollar balance sheet shows a profit.

The only challenge on earth that I ever had, currently have, or will have in the future is to manage my emotions.

And since I am an emotion, the challenge is to literally be the director of my true self. My challenges on earth are self-created because I choose to attend and interpret events in a certain way—based on my beliefs and expectations—and thereby create respective emotions.

Any event that is not worth my attention does not challenge my beliefs or expectations also does not bother me emotionally.

Emotion is my state of being at any given time. Emotions arise as I perceive and attach meaning to various events. Once risen, I might choose to remain in my emotion, becoming the passenger as I go through an emotional roller-coaster ride, driven by my beliefs, perceptions, and values.

This is literally by design in my system so that when I stress myself out or when I have had enough, I slowly learn to question my values and take control of my emotions.

It is important to remember here that we always have the option to direct our emotions from the start, choosing how to interpret events and how we want to feel, no matter what is happening on the outside. I never had to be the passenger on the roller-coaster.

Nevertheless, regardless of which decision I made, whether I was the passenger or the director, the situations themselves did not change. What changed were only my interpretations and emotions around those events and hence my challenges in life.

My biggest challenge in life is my interpretation of events and, therefore, these challenges are never insurmountable.

Emotions not only affect how I manage my day-to-day business but also how my body experiences its day-to-day business on the inside—by altering hormones, firing nerve signals, and modifying biochemical reactions.

After all, it us creating cravings, dislikes, symptoms, immunological reactions—and ultimately a state of health or disease. I will elaborate more on it in my next article.

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