The Purpose of Emotions:

Our Built-In Spiritual GPS System

I think one of the best analogies to understand the proper purpose and function of emotions is that of a GPS system.  A GPS system is a feedback device that tells us on a visual display where we are geographically at any given time. If we've programmed a destination into it, it's job is to instruct us step by step how to get there and to let us know if we're staying on course or getting off course.   If we get off course, the unit will recalibrate and start directing us how to get back on track.

Wouldn't it be great if we had a spiritual GPS system that would do the same thing for us spiritually- help us get from where we are where we want to be spiritually?   I believe we do have such a thing and we come with it already pre-programmed with our final destination. That destination is a return to God- our Creator- but not just returning to where we came from like the proverbial river returning to the sea and being swallowed up in the sea with no more individual identity.   Rather a returning as an individual conscious being that has evolved spiritually as a direct result of being human and experiencing life on earth and exercising free will to make decisions along the way- having thus fulfilled the purpose of coming into this life to begin with, and ready to continue on evolving eternally.

So, how does this built-in spiritual GPS system communicate with us? Can we look on a screen and see written directions for making important decisions? Can we listen to a voice telling us to take a right turn at the next fork in the road? Obviously it's not quite that easy. On the other hand it's not nearly as hard as most of us make it out to be. We don't need to consult spiritual gurus, have our palms or auras read by psychics, spend years studying in seminaries or earn an advanced degree in theology.  

The communication method is something that we're all familiar with, but maybe haven't thought about as serving the purpose of spiritual feedback. The method is our emotions or "feelings".    If you're like me, you may have taken on a belief at some point in your life that your feelings were an unreliable guide, were constantly changing and as such could not really be trusted. Instead your intellect and logic were what could be trusted. Head over heart.   While there is good reason to not allow our feelings to automatically determine our behavior, I have since come to understand just how important our feelings are in giving us feedback on our spiritual direction and also just how much of a hurdle or smokescreen our intellect can become (if we let it) when it comes to spiritual growth.   

Cause & Effect

Before going further in explaining how we can rely on our feelings to guide us through life and back to our destination, we need to first understand that emotions are a response or effect of underlying causes- they are not free agents generating emotions on their own- they are acted upon by other causes . There are many different causes that can impact our emotions. Some are out of our control, but most are within our control- or at least we are capable of bringing them within our control. Some common emotional generators include our diet, fatigue and sleep patterns, intoxication, illness, injury, hormonal changes, biorhythms, subconscious childhood memories and associations, even scents and music can be emotional generators that impact how we feel. It is precisely because there are so many underlying causes that understanding what our emotions mean can be so confusing.

The important realization regarding emotions is that we can create a space between feelings and behavior. We don't have to be automatic emotional reactors. Our emotions themselves are automatic reactors, but we are not our emotions. There are two extremes of reacting to emotions that are common- and both are unhealthy. The first is to deny and suppress them and the other is to automatically externalize them in our behavior- to dramatize them- letting everyone else know what we're feeling. There is a third option- and a much healthier one: we feel them and observe and learn from them without acting out on them or denying them. Because an emotion is an automatic reaction of some underlying cause- we can look for that underlying cause and use the emotional reaction to understand better what might be going on in the deep unseen world of our mind and body. We are not responsible for our feelings, we are only responsible for our behavior and as we grow spiritually, our behavior becomes less and less at the mercy of our feelings- but instead we learn to use the messages our feelings are communicating to make better decisions.  

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