I am not my emotions / Yo no soy mis emociones

I am not my emotions or my thoughts, and neither are you.  If you speak or have ever studied Spanish (as I am now), you may have noticed the interesting way in which feelings and states of being are expressed this language.

I actually prefer the way it is expressed versus English, because in English, we take on our temporary, transient states as part of our identity in the way that we speak them.
For example, if you feel cold, you probably say, “I am cold.”
In Spanish, however, you would say, “Tengo frío,” which means “I have cold.”  You don’t become the coldness — you just have it for a while. This makes more sense to me.
It’s important to remember that all feelings are temporary and that not all thoughts are true. They don’t make us who we are. We are not our thoughts or emotions — we are the ones who experience them.
Eckhart Tolle describes this concept beautifully in his books A New Earth and The Power of Now, two books I highly recommend if you want to learn about mindfulness and about the concept of being the observer of your emotions rather the emotions themselves.
I’m feeling a lot better after a recent episode that I had of intense anxiety and EDNOS.  If I believed that how I felt would last forever, I might still be suffering. When times are tough, it can be very difficult (especially when you have Borderline Personality Disorder) to believe that you will feel better again, but we must recall a time when we were suffering and came through and know that this instance is no exception.
I hope this encourages you today.
Thanks for reading.
More Soon.
14 replies
  1. Jane Doe
    Jane Doe says:

    You're so right! I currently live in a Spanish speaking country and it's been great noticing the differences! I also love it that they have two verbs for "to be": ser and estar. While "ser" is used for something that is permanent (like your nationality), "estar" expresses something temporary that will not define your for ever (like your physical location or mood). Can language heal?

    Reply
  2. Jane Doe
    Jane Doe says:

    You're so right! I currently live in a Spanish speaking country and it's been great noticing the differences! I also love it that they have two verbs for "to be": ser and estar. While "ser" is used for something that is permanent (like your nationality), "estar" expresses something temporary that will not define your for ever (like your physical location or mood). Can language heal?

    Reply

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