“All situations are emotionally neutral, we can decide how we feel about any given situation.” Unknown

When I read this I had to go back and reread it! “All situations are emotionally neutral.” Wow, I could probably stop here and let us all chew on this for the weekend. My knee jerk reaction to this quote was, “No they’re not!”, but after giving it some more thought, I realized, actually, they are. 

I am headed to a wedding this weekend (yes, another one!). We think of weddings as generally happy and joy filled occasions, but truthfully weddings are emotionally neutral—we attach the, “happy and joy filled.” But if the bride was someone you had a past relationship with, perhaps, “happy and joy filled,” would not be how you’d describe your emotions as you attended the wedding. “All situations are emotionally neutral,” gives us the power to be in complete control of how we handle ANY situation. 

Take a current situation in your life right now that “ain’t so great.” What emotion have you tied to it? Is it sadness, anger, disappointment, disgust, shame, fear, or something else? Now backpedal a bit and remind yourself that this situation is actually emotionally neutral and YOU have pinned this arguably unhealthy emotion to it. Can you change your perspective and see it as emotionally neutral? Or can you, better yet, change the emotion to one that serves you better than the one you first chose? Can you feel opportunity, or love, or excitement? Give it a go and let me know what you come up with. I have decided to let go of “frustrated,” and I have chosen, instead, to feel “excited.”

Let’s GO! WE GOT THIS!
BETH