Math? Ugh! It’s a common response I hear to that word. I’ve learned that just the thought of it can create a physical and emotional reaction as we remember those high school or college days where we struggled through something that may have felt like climbing up a sand hill. If you are one of those people whose stomach just jumped or shoulders slumped when you read the word “math”, take heart! I’m talking about the emotional equations we each use to build our life every single day. While this type of equation is built on mathematical fundamentals, the payoff for doing this kind of homework opens the door to living life in new ways. This is exactly where a commitment to becoming a math whiz will deliver the best results.
Let’s start with the basics; the underlying motivation in all that you do is based on your desire to feel better. Some way. Some how. Your decisions are driven by your subliminal need for emotional relief and the hope of feeling happy. Your emotions are always the indicators of whether or not you’re succeeding. You assign a feeling to everything you notice, believe and experience and it’s based on past events in your life. You call it good, bad, positive, negative; it lights you up or it fires you up. And know this, no matter what feeling a situation evokes it is actively creating your future. It’s what we all do. This is where knowledge is power and math comes in.
You are doing emotional math all the time by assessing a person/event/situation and quickly, without even noticing it, choosing an emotion that proves your perception right or defends a belief and thus creates an experience. It looks like this:
A person/event/situation + your perception/reaction = your experience
The constant in every equation is the person/event/situation; it is what it is. The variable is you; your emotional perceptions and reactions. Yes, you. Every single time. The constant plus the variable always equals the result. If you’re looking for a better answer, it’s time to change. Get leverage creating new outcomes by playing with the variable…YOU. Wake up to your emotions and motivations in situations and do the math of challenging your familiar feelings and replacing them with new ones in a conscious and useful way. Now there’s an effective and repetitive process that drives higher levels of happiness; exactly what you are always after!
Can doing a new calculation be as simple as looking at how you are currently feeling about a situation, taking a breath to create an emotional pause and then deliberately choosing a better thought and way to respond? The answer is yes! And it all needs to be done with a desired outcome of feeling better by expanding yourself and your emotional thresholds and capabilities. Why? It’s simple; doing something different allows you to experience something different; the reason you’re here.
So become a mathematical genius – it’s where you will see the rewards and fulfillment in life. Use your awareness as the forerunner to change. Once you become attentive to your feelings (those negative or positive ones, welcome one and all) you have the ability to step into choice; stay where you are or move to higher ground where there is a broader view. It is there, on the brink of mindfulness where you have the ability to look at what you are willing to think, which changes what you are feeling and finally, summons the outcomes steeped in growth, grace, meaning, a little more ease … and happiness.
