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Excerpts from
"Changing Your Stripes"


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E-Motion as Energy-In-Motion
by Matt Moody, Ph.D. 

Even though you author your emotions, sometimes the experience of emotion feels like something that is being done to you, as opposed to something you are doing, and therefore something you are choosing. You may say within yourself, "I know I am supposed to be the author of my emotions, but often emotions seem to erupt uninvited and unwanted, . . . so what's up with that?"

* * * * *
E-Motions that are felt today, are not chosen Today; instead,
all emotional responses are chosen in previous weeks and months
by a pattern of prior choices made Yesterday.
Today's decisions set Energy-in-Motion
that is manifest & felt Tomorrow.

.* * * * *.

When certain decisions are made today, emotional reactions cannot be controlled tomorrow, for they are already on their way. Hence, we are destined to experience all the consequences of yesterday's poor choices, at some time in the future.

This means that when tomorrow arrives, you are literally an emotional response waiting to happen. Being the ultimate author of your emotions means that you determine the emotional energy you set-in-motion.

 
  Like an Arrow Shot from an Arher's Bow, Choice Made Today Set-in-Motion tommorows Consequences

Once that energy is in motion, it's like an arrow that has left the archer's bow: It's only a matter of time till that arrow hits the target and makes its mark.

Setting E-Motion into Motion is also like throwing a rock: Once the rock has left your hand it moves in a course determined by the chosen velocity of throwing, and the decided direction of the throwing as well.

Thus, prior decisions determine the course and destiny of the arrow and the rock. In the same way, when stones of emotion are hurled, their ultimate destiny is beyond your control too, you cannot call them back.

 
 

* * * * *
As decisions are made Today, your way of reacting
emotionally cannot be controlled Tomorrow:
Energy-in-Motion is already on its way.
You are destined to experience all
the consequences connected to
Yesterday’s poor choices
at some time in the Future.
 * * * * *.

Life happens this way because there must necessarily be a "consequence" to all of Life's choice; otherwise, you would not be about to discern the quality of your decisions. Emotional consequences occur as a direct result of your choices because of a governing principle of Life: "That which you send out . . . will return to you." This IS the Law of the Harvest, . . . also called Karma!

While you are free to make decisions based upon your own rationale--your personal value system--still, you are not free from experiencing the consequences of your choices. As Stephen Covey maintains, "Values determine behavior; and Principles determine the consequences of behavior."

* * * * *
Life is Self-Correcting precisely because there are clear consequences connected
to every chosen thought you think, and every chosen deed you do.
Consequences are the "fruit" that lets you know
that a chosen "seed" is good . . . or bad.
.* * * * *.
(Changing Your Stripes, 3rd Ed., page 131)

More specifically, emotional reactions are natural consequences energized from a fundamental choice that underlies all thinking and doing: The choice to . . . Be True or Betray. Without an adequate understanding of what being-emotional IS, and exactly how emotional responses are set-in-motion, people will be frustrated as they try to control today, that which is NOT controllable today. Misunderstanding the way emotions occur explains why, . . . when feelings finally flare, . . . the person-being-emotional feels like emotions were NOT chosen; it feels that way . . . because it IS that way! Emotions are NOT chosen in the NOW, . . . rather they erupt via energy-set-in-motion yesterday.

Another element to understanding how emotions manifest is the Provoke-Ability Quotient. Emotional energy previously set-in-motion manifests, or "squirts" out, at those moments when our individual P.Q. thresholds are maxed out. And of course, the P.Q. threshold being a function of Who You Are, therefore, everyone's emotional react-ability will be different. If you happen to have a High Provoke-Ability Quotient, then you can look yourself directly in the mirror and meet the person ultimately Response-Able for your exhibitions of emotional squirting--your propensity for emitting emotionally energized knee-jerk reactions.

When people don't understanding the principles of the P.Q. threshold as well as Energy-in-Motion, this explains why there is great confusion about who's to blame or what's to blame in the midst of a contentious situation. In a pressing moment, sufficient to provoke a person beyond their P.Q. threshold, it is common to blame the constraining situation for the welling up of unwanted emotions. This "cause and effect" conclusion WAS completely the case in childhood, when in total innocence, children responded honestly and spontaneously to abrasive approaches.

*   *   *   *   *

To better understand Energy-In-Motion, you need to understand the way Cause & Effect occurs within the Behavioral Realm of Life, as opposed to the Physical Realm; and you also need to understand your Provoke-Ability Quotient—I call it the PQ.

All these ideas are thoroughly detailed in Dr Matt's book: Changing Your Stripes.


 
 

 

The Greatest Prize
for Life's labors isn't
in material possessions
or impressive accomplishments,
but in the progress of personal character.
You labor for your own becoming, this is your richest reward.
Who You Become is your greatest possession,
make it your Masterpiece!

(Changing Your Stripes, 2nd Edition, page 274)
.

The book, "Changing Your Stripes" presents principles for getting out of
the ditch in which you've been dumped (the difficulties of which you are a victim), and
the ditch in which you've jumped (the difficulties for which you volunteer).

"Mastering a challenging situation
is ultimately a matter of
mastering yourself!"

- Matt Moody 

"Changing Your Stripes," teaches you the principles that lead to lasting change,
making you a new kind of creature capable of communicating
with calm, even as storms of contention swirl.

If these ideas resonate and ring true,
then . . . this book is for you!


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Changing Your Stripes is a
unique reference book that will help
you understand, . . .
and solve all of
Life's ever-appearing problems.
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Changing Your Stripes


Social Psychologist & Personal Advisor
 

 
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