Negative emotion

We fill our lives with negative emotions. Anger, irritation, hatred, worry, fear, resentment, bitterness. There is nothing that we so much enjoy as experiencing negative emotions. This may sound strange, as most of us believe that we do everything in our power to avoid unpleasant emotions. If we observe our daydreaming without judging, we will quickly establish that we frequently indulge in fantasising about unpleasant things. Continued observation will show us our deep-seated affinity for negativity.

Emotional centre is the only centre that does not have two parts (positive and negative). Love, hope and joy are what rightfully belong to it. Grief is not a negative emotion, it is an organic response to loss. Nevertheless, the vast majority of what emotional centre processes is negative. We go over and over in our minds different negative scenarios, generating wrong work for emotional centre by allowing imagination to run uncontrolled. Our instinctive responses of pain or pleasure, like or dislike, are confused with emotion and emotional centre ends up doing wrong work by processing what rightfully belongs to instinctive or even moving centre.

For example, it is well known that prolonged pain can cause depression. This is an example of the work of instinctive centre being taken over by wrong work of emotional centre. This may be an extreme, but it happens all the time, in a smaller way. Continuous wrong work of centres uses up the finer energy needed for positive emotions. We have no real positive emotions, because they can change into negative emotions in an instant. The love we feel for our partner can change into irritation about the smallest thing. The joy we experience on a sunny day can be shattered by a rude remark by a stranger. We are not one.

It is possible to start seeing our love of negative emotions by trying to stop expressing them. When we refrain from expressing irritation or anger or resentment, we can see it, for an instant, and we can start to become aware of how frequent it is. However, the dragon we are striving to slay is many-headed and not expressing negative emotion can become an excuse for directing negative emotion inwards instead, ‘bottling it up’. This can lead to illness and unnecessary suffering.

It is possible to express negative emotion without identification. To be outwardly angry and to be inwardly quiet. The work does not change your outward behaviour. But you can begin to become less identified with negative emotion.

Internal considering gives rise to an enormous amount of negative emotion. We continuously think that others do not think highly enough of us, do not appreciate us enough, do not notice us, do not give us the attention that we are due. To separate from internal considering requires continuous effort, because it has been fostered so deeply in our personality. We have learned to consider internally by imitating our parents’ and teachers’ responses. Yet every moment gives us a new possibility to become free from keeping accounts, free from identifying with internal considering.

The octaves of food, air and impressions on the enneagram.

As we are, the octaves are not completed. In order for this

to occur, we need to work on ourselves.

If we want to start any serious work on ourselves, we must begin to halt the constant waste of energy that expressing negative emotion means. We pour out the energy carefully collected and refined by the body from the coarse intake of food (and other sources) into negative emotion, which serves no purpose whatsoever. We need this energy for processes we hope to begin to complete in ourselves. Without work against negative emotion, no Work can begin in earnest.