When building something, obviously the foundation is an important part of the final process as it is this that will support everything that is to follow. If the base is weak and cracks under pressure, there is really not much anything above it can do to stop the collapse from happening. In regards to a person, it is the emotional stability that is the critical factor to support all the other parts to come. If the emotional self cannot provide the support when necessary, no amount of other skills will help.
In my opinion, and this is my opinion only, emotional stability is the bedrock on which we can build ourselves and is critical to not only our successes but, dealing with the inevitable failures that will arrive along the pathway. This requires understanding but, it does not require some expert with a degree to build. It takes personal awareness and attention of thought and how the emotions react to them. This is all discoverable without the aid of anyone other than the individual.
But, we do like to blame people for our emotions and we like to be hurt by the words and actions of others as it gives us an excuse to break free of personal constraint and pour it out, rather than process it internally. In my opinion, this is foundational weakness and something we all suffer with from time to time but something that we can continually work on.
This is the beauty of being human and one of our gifted psychological skills, we can always affect it, reinforce it, perfect it, the journey need never end. So many people I have met have said things like 'This is the way I am' and 'I have tried to change' but they always seem to forget that they have already changed, are always changing and who they have accepted as 'them' is fundamentally different in many way than they were a day, a year or a decade earlier.
It is an excuse again to say that we do not have the chance to affect our own software as it is done daily by our external experience. If we can't change our attitudes and how we see the world, than no amount of marketing will ever work on us so blaming advertisers for body issues or obesity epidemics is ridiculous. The reason the adverts affect us is because we allow them in to reprogramme our preferences and views of the world. This is the same for all kinds of propaganda designed to shift our behaviours, they make us feel something but they do not force anything, we let them in.
Just my opinion and one that emotionally unstable/expressive people disagree with as they talk about passion being expressed through emotion but, I disagree with this in the sense they mean it. One can be filled with both emotion and passion yet no one ever need see a smile or a frown, one never need see anything as it doesn't need to be expressed as a show of emotion. Emotional control doesn't mean emotions will always remain unseen though, it is just control, it provides options.
No one need agree nor attempt to build a foundation for themselves but, it has been an important evolution for my own development and has made me much more sensitive to experience and other people as I am better equipped to see them, rather than be blinded by how I feel. It helps me listen, even when I don't like what I hear.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]