Carl Jung believes that humans think in two sets of polarities; Thinking and Feeling; Impulse and Intuition. He also critiqued the western man saying that we characteristically think only in thinking and impulse. This leaves the western man underdeveloped in two domains that are at his disposal.
Sitting in the pits of our underdeveloped mind lay unknown capabilities, who once harnessed can provide strengths for us. One of these capabilities is the channeling of our emotions.
Emotions are the strongest of our internal controllers, they can send us into fury, a fit of tears, evoke a joyous squeal, or send us into complete despair, all prompted by a couple of words.
We can learn to harness this most powerful internal controller once we come to understand it. Once we understand the roots of our intense feelings we can redirect them towards our aims.
To understand our emotions is a simple process of asking ourselves continually the question why. This is simple in theory and difficult in practice, as is most advice.
During our interrogation of our invading emotion what we are looking for is a 'why' that could also be a 'why' for our aims and tasks. When we are able to merge the rationales of our emotions with those of our self-betterment what we get is an emotionally charged motivation.
By aligning our aims with our emotions we are able to pursue them with a new found resoluteness.
When emotions consume us, we must stop, relax, and seek their origins. With their origins in hand, we can either unravel and tame the emotion, or redirect it towards a means.
Eugène Isabey - The Burial at Sea of a Marine Officer Serving under Louis XVI - 1836
