The Undercurrents that Drive all Reality

Much like water, life flows in a momentum that is driven by an undercurrent below the surface of what we see. The undercurrents that drive our actions are our emotions. It's a very unflattering fact of reality that we mostly go unaware of and are sometimes reluctant to accept.

How so?

Our primary motivation for taking an action is the reward it will bring us. Human nature is selfish so we only take action when something stands to benefit us or fulfill our needs. This concept is not limited to material gain or our personal agendas in society, it is hinged up on our emotions.

As children, when we are told that we are valuable, important and that we matter, a sense of confidence is instilled in us. We go through life with a sense of value and importance because it has been set as a foundation of our self perception at an early age. Our emotional foundation is love, therefore the actions we take in our lives typically reflect that foundation.

Conversely, if we are neglected, abused, unwanted and made to feel as if we are a burden to our parents as children growing up in a toxic environment, then our emotional foundation is pain. Until we address it and make a consistent and disciplined effort in reframing and understanding it, we carry that pain is the foundation of our very being. We may seek to escape it, numb it and find ways to cope with it so our lives can become a reflection of that foundation.

Our emotional foundation is what our lives are built upon. From that foundation, our experiences and values are also form more developed parts of our emotional foundations. Looking at this on a microscopic and macroscopic level, the very energy that motivates us to take an action is rooted in an emotional foundation.

If we have a strong sense of pride in our emotional foundation, then the actions we take reinforce and reflect what we feel. We may be very meticulous in our work, we may be very prudent in approach to things and we may be very obsessive compulsive in the performance of our tasks to ensure perfection.

Why?

It is a reflection of our pride so the action is holding a mirror to our emotional foundation.

When we take actions that we do not want to take, we simply do it for the sake of avoiding the negative feelings associate with not taking the action. We do things we do not really want to do because we want to avoid feeling certain emotions.

If it is a weekend and we are in a beautiful place with our friends but we know that we have to go back to work on Monday, yet we do not want to go; we will drag ourselves home, and then to work in the morning because we do not want to feel the sense of shame from having a bad reputation, we do not want to feel the sense of rejection if we get fired and we do not want to feel the sense of worry that comes with losing our income.

If our significant other expects us to attend a function we do not want to attend and be the company of people we do not want to be around, we will do simply because we do not want to feel the sense of shame, rejection, disappointment and guilt associated with not meeting our partner's expectations.

When we seek to be successful in our lives, we are doing it for the sake of being able to live in an emotion. We feel a sense of pride and confidence when we are revered and respected as an important person in an organization. We feel a sense of accomplishment when we look at our accolades and we feel a sense of self worth when we have status, possessions and high priced items that we call our own.

When we have children, we will feel a sense of pride in ourselves for our ability to provide a good life for them. When we are married, we seek to be a good provider for our spouse because our love for them is reflected in the experiences we give them, which in tern is really the emotions we cause them to feel.

In our relationships, when we place our focus on the material results of creating and living a good life, yet ignore the process of maintaining a strong connection with our partners, we find things may fall apart despite the grandiose settings we find ourselves in. This is why a fancy house full of nice stuff can still be empty and unwelcoming, yet a simple cabin in the woods can feel like home.

If we were to look at this idea objectively, then we will discover that everything we do is motivated by an emotional reward, or the aversion of an emotional consequence.

Our emotions are the foundation of our very being, our relationships, our connections to other people and are the driving undercurrents that move our realities. The more we ignore this fact, the more we may find that we drive ourselves into places of doubt, confusion and chaos.

If we are not living a life that is true to our hearts, we hear it in whispers while our minds scream to drown out the noise. When we live a life that is only based on our thoughts yet incongruent with what is truly in our hearts, we will inevitably find emptiness and strife.

The most important thing we can do moving forward is to find a way to live true to ourselves, true to our purpose, true to our passion and above all else, true to what is in our hearts.