Your Emotions Map

The rela­tion­ship between the mind, the emo­tions, the brain, and the spirit can be seen as a map. This metaphor is often acted out when peo­ple go on vaca­tion or move. As peo­ple age, they tend to move closer to large bod­ies of water. They seek the calm­ing mys­tique of gen­tle winds and waves. “Home” is usu­ally seen as the ter­ri­tory of their birth and early years. Peo­ple some­times move “home” for their final years — wher­ever that may be.

A com­mon coun­selor ques­tion is: “Where are you these days?” The response to the ques­tion often sounds like some­thing right out of the Psalms of David. They answer with the equiv­a­lent of: “In the Val­ley of the Shadow of Death.” They are depressed. Giv­ing a men­tal pic­ture has a way of con­nect­ing the feel­ings with the soul. Lis­ten to the way you “pic­ture” your feel­ings and where you are in life, and you will know how to move along to bet­ter places in your psy­che. Being “led beside still waters” means mov­ing out of the pits where you are now.

Stare at a pic­ture for very long and you begin to feel like you are in the scene. Movies are men­tal maps in motion. Music is a great vehi­cle for mov­ing from emo­tion to emo­tion. The same is true for aro­mas. What we expe­ri­ence gives us a tour of the soul. Dri­ving a long ways home will trig­ger a vari­ety of mem­o­ries — espe­cially if you have lived in some of the places between here and there.

It is easy to get stuck in your emo­tions map. Some peo­ple never leave the city block of a hand­ful of mem­o­ries, feel­ings, and view­points. They live and die in the same spot — miss­ing the greater scheme of life. They expe­ri­ence lit­tle and suf­fer from an impov­er­ished imagination.

As an old 60’s song once said, “Take a mind excur­sion…” Go find your other feel­ings. The range is the equiv­a­lent of all that is on the sur­face of this planet — includ­ing every cloud and star above. There is more to life than your rou­tine square mile and your well-worn paths.