Where are your emotions?

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As you can likely guess from my avatar and username, I am fascinated by Spock in his struggle to prioritize logic over emotion. Out of everything in Star Trek, it is the Vulcans and their culture that I spend the most time reflecting on.

I can relate to wanting to bridle turbulent emotions. There was much suffering in my past as a consequence of letting my emotions govern my physical actions. My reputation in any given setting was constantly on the edge. As were my possessions, my family members, and friends. I was given to very childish mood swings.

My goal was to mitigate my emotions significantly, so they were easier to control. I did that. Now what I feel is peace. In some moments I feel a profound happiness. My philosophy is to tame the internal hurricane before it destroys you; to monitor your feelings and experience them voluntarily, avoiding altogether the temptation of letting them govern your actions. Indeed, emotions will always have a place in the metaphorical courts of your brain. The trick is to make sure they don't make up the entire jury.

Where are your emotions?

As I matured, I learned to govern my emotions. IMO. there is always an emotional opportunity waiting to happen. One must decide if its worth it. I have a friend that always reacts with emotion, to everything. Sometimes it can be frustrating, at others, irritating. Lots of things would go a good deal smoother, if emotions were used sparingly. It isn't easy, for some. But I find that if I save my emotions for worthwhile moments, or if they are necessary to get something done, its better.

When very young, I let emotions control my life. Life was full of drama and stress. I realize that I can't control others, but I can control myself.

I'm sort of caught in the middle because I try to keep emotion from swaying my opinions. There are times where emotion plays a part in forming opinions, but many times one must remove emotion when forming an opinion.

I remember back in grade school a logic problem where there were too many people living in a bomb shelter, and you had to decide who was to leave the shelter. As a kid, I didn't want anybody to leave the shelter and die, so I thought of a plan and rationing of food and supplies to get them all through the time needed to remain in the shelter.

I failed that exercise.

After that, I guess I learned that it was ok to let people die if it meant survival for others: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I still think that quote sucks.

Anyhow, I see to much emotion in arguements and debate. If more people left out the emotion, I think the would might just be a little bit better place to live.

[I am fascinated by Spock in his struggle to prioritize logic over emotion. Out of everything in Star Trek, it is the Vulcans and their culture that I spend the most time reflecting on.]
Yes! I totally agree! Most of the time, I have almost no emotions then out of nowhere whether justified or not i have very INTENSE emotions! The Vulcan ideal has helped me too some extent and at very least kept me out of trouble!

I had adpoted a "Vulcan way of life" long before I even heard of Star Trek. When I discovered the show the similarities and extended philosophy of the Vulcans strongly appealed to me. I still try to look at things from an objective point of view, although always seeing myself as an outsider can lead to a great deal of problems when I find myself smack in the middle of a volatile situation because I have no idea how to get out of it.

Nicely thought-provoking...

I do zen meditation daily, and that has definitely helped with riding the emotional firestorms out, as well as helping me understand and identify them better. It can be a pretty rugged, rough ride on my little black cushion, but it's definitely helped me to be able to lay my emotions aside in face-to-face situations... they've become less overpowering and controlling.

By learning to ride the energy without getting sucked into it, I've found that the effect is very different from trying to actually suppress the emotion... it's more about restraint while acknowledging/experiencing it and letting it inform me without running over me.

It's sort of like surfing a tsunami. A rush, a major threat/thrill, and sometimes I wipe out.

These are all splendid replies.

To Leonard Nimoy, the Vulcans represented Jews. To me, they represent us.

Wow, are you serious? The Jews I know are wildly emotional...

My emotions are under arrest and are going to stay locked up until they get released for good behaviour.

Mainly I was born without them sorta cause when I was young I never really felt anything and if people get emotional around me it makes me feel ill

My emotions... eh. These days, I go from not feeling much of anything at all (or, literally, feeling nothing period), to being wildly out of control emotionally. And I haven't any control over any of it.

Non-existant. Lexapro really tends to make them hide on you.

That, or they're all bottled up waiting for something to trigger them.