OUR EMOTIONAL MEMORY

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” ~Carl W. Buechner

The primary source of our emotional process is in the subconscious mind and experienced throughout the nervous system most notably in the vagus nerve of the stomach… we often use the heart as a metaphor when speaking about feelings however the true source is in our subconscious mind.

Our subconscious memory system stores information in the form of images but they are filed and recalled on the basis their intensity of positive or negative feelings. Most subconscious beliefs and value judgements are also filed by their emotional importance and also formed as images. Therefore the more emotionally intense images grabs our primary attention…this is also true of our dreams while asleep, our most emotionally metaphorical images come to the surface…and when in a state of imagination or fantasy our subconscious feelings are expressed based on our emotional interests.

Since our dominant emotions usually center around our self image or ego ….it becomes the primary preoccupation of our conscious mind ….most spiritual practices are efforts to reduce the emotional intensity with our self …the “flow” experience is most apt to occur when we are least aware of our self .

Our subconscious controls habits , feelings, and intuition, while our conscious mind dominates our logic, language, sense of order, math, and deductive logic.

When we make an important decision, it appears to be based on logic and reasoning, weighing and evaluating the pros and cons but this is generally not true

The subconscious mind, is the deciding factor in most decision-making. Our decision by the emotional subconscious comes first before it is sent to our conscious mind for a logical and rational explanation. Sometimes these explanations are really just rationalizations in order to please our emotional subconscious…it is an indication that developing our emotional intelligence is much more important than our thought processes. In psychological studies not even 10% of all decisions are “wholly” logical.

“A person in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for their action.” ~Jawaharlal Nehru