In this year of the goat the theme will be about being competent with our emotions. That has nothing to do with controlling them, repressing them, regulating them, or attempting to release them back into the wild. It’s about being fluent in them, competent to use them just as we’ve (hopefully) become competent at driving our vehicles, using cutlery, and texting (butt dialing not withstanding.) Last year most of us got schooled in what happens when we’re out of touch with our emotions or when we’re so unfamiliar with them that the best we can do is react to them or give up and let them sweep us away. We washed up in random places and now we have to get ourselves back together and figure out where we go from here.
That isn’t “just the way it is” nor is it the physics of emotions. That’s what happens when you neglect or ignore something vital and then have an emergency where you need to use it to save your life. You know all those really boring, silly, annoying drills we get put through in school, at work, in public life? All the sirens and meet over here to get counted and “This is just a test?” Well the purpose of them is to keep us in touch with them should they be real and for us to be competent in doing what needs to get done in the situations they are designed to support us through.
Emotions are way more integral to life than that, however we tend to minimize them, trivialize them, relegate them to entertainments and affairs, and then when something big happens we’re unprepared to work with them or even recognize what is going on. This year is about rectifying that. We have the opportunity to bring our emotions out of the closet, bring them down from the shelf and dust them off. We have a choice of whether to relegate them to obscurity again or to start listening to their wisdom and accepting their support. They are just as wise/intelligent/insightful as our logical brain and most of the time more aligned with common sense and our best interest. So here’s to emotional competency. Cheers!