Emotions-the tool

Emotions can be a powerful tool. There are schools of thought that deliberately suppresses emotions or say that emotions is a bad thing. "Dont be emotional, they say". But in my mind, what they are doing is killing empathy and sympathy.

Look at it this way, emotions are there for a reason, every emotion. And there is a purpose for it. Read this. And remember what I said about paradox and the big picture.

It's Both/And. We need good thinking skills and emotions. Dont throw one out. It's a question of ordering; of process. Read here.

Use this analogy. The mind and the spirit is the rider and the body ergo the emotions is the horse. The training is to ensure that the rider rides the horse and not the other way round. But you need all, mind, body and spirit or you are crippled.

Observe this. In a conference I witnessed an event surrounding a noble lady who tried an enterprise. We had an American speaker and he asked the lady to explain how the enterprise failed. And he made fun of her in front of 300 delegates. What do you think should have been the appropriate response? She pretended it was a joke and laughed along. It was a joke. She was the joke.

If you are emotionally damaged, you cant see that. A tool of counselling is to match the event with the appropriate emotions. The counsellor can see the extent of the damage with the inappropriateness of the response.

You need your emotions intact to recognise the "hidden" malice in your surroundings. I remarked in an earlier posting of some officials in PICA. I said they spent as much time honing underhanded tricks as I spent studying chess. They come in many disguises nowadays. If you are trained to be aware you will "see" them. There is something off about them. Their true emotions will surface eventually. Can you see how this tool may work in other chess settings?