Emotions….

Hey what are emotions ? I had wanted to write about this for a long time now. What the hell are emotions…happiness, moroseness or sadness, anger, pity, kindness etc. etc. ?

Well to put all this into words is difficult but after reading a lot of best-selling self help books by some noted authors (of course since the ones by lesser known authors are not widely known, one will hardly come across them), I can say one thing for sure that the gamut (Uh..range..I mean) of emotions are there for us to see and feel.

There are primarily two kinds of people society as per the nomenclature society has given to us humans. Introvert or Shy as the synonym has come out to be and Extrovert or outgoing.

I will talk about me as I still consider myself an Introvert as far as expressing myself is concerned, though I have consciously attempted to change myself after the end of teens and into early twenties. In school & partly at college I used to be the book-worm types. The college was one of the biggest impressions I had on my personality & outlook. There I slowly started realizing that life is not all black & white and this view has slowly been taking shape into the opinion that life is every possible shades of gray :)

I distinctly remember when I was filling up the essays for admission into the Indian School of Business in February 2003 ( though I didn't make it to the class is another story to be told sometime later), and I had to mention the events that shaped me up or had the maximum impact on me as a person. I mentioned, the realization of the fact that the people who are most brilliant in studies / college and got top ranks consistently in studies were, most often that not, the people who fared miserably in their professional lives and careers. I also realized at every stage or step of your life namely school, college, career, marriage, kids life just completely shifted the stage (as in dramatics / theatre) under your feet, one on which you were performing. The net result being one has to continuously monitor the background and references and the ever-pervasive change was inevitable. So to fare in life one has to continuously keep evaluating the situation and attempt to condition your response to it. If one is able to do that most effectively, one is GREAT, else one falls alongside the path of Life. Stuck in the rut or personal relationships, career and everything. That’s how I have seen many people in the society or the majority I must confess (at least true in the Indian context).

If we reverse the coin, we will find that emotions are what make us up. X is very happy go lucky guy, Y always is always sullen to talk to, Z seems to remain in her own world. What is this I mean ?

So the situations that impact our lives also give rise to the kind of emotions we undergo. When you get a raise, you are happy or you may even be sad considering that your colleague got a much higher rise when compared to you. Some of the so called self help books ask you to control your emotions, get hold of them. Yes they may help or not, I can’t say for if one were to follow all these books in Toto at the end you’ll find that you’re closer to being God. I am at best happy feeling like a God on my bike (that what its advertisement says :).

However when you do follow these books and more often that not I have found it does take a lot of (and when I say a lot believe me it is really lots..lots & lots) of efforts to follow them in entirety so what do I do, I take the easy way out, I only pick and choose the things I am comfortable with and I am happy even if I am able to get a few things from any book. So in the process I am creating my own school of thought.

Last but not the least one book has had a big impression on me, its called Emotional Intelligence and another one called Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Coleman. He helps you realize what you undergo and suggest corrective measures to overcome the negative emotions. Needless to mention, I hardly follow the latter part.

To conclude, I am happy, I am sad, I am kind, I am angry, I am empathetic all at the same time. I feel..I..I feel like God ! That’s what makes me up….the package called Me, I or Myself.