We all have feelings. Feelings are one of the most wonderful and most difficult aspects of living. We get to experience the highs of joy, happiness, and abundance, along with the lows of sorrow, frustration, and sadness. Plus there are many other feelings like anger, excitement, fear, surprise, eagerness, and confusion that populate our lives.

All these feelings are helpful tools if you learn to understand and use them.

Feelings as a guiding system

One way to use feelings is to understand where they come from. When there is alignment or conflict between your thoughts and beliefs you begin to feel something that indicates something is or isn’t right.

When you think and believe the same thing, you have ‘good’ feelings. When you think one thing and believe something different, you don’t feel right and have ‘bad’ feelings.

For example, if you believe you are good at public speaking and you sign up to speak in front of a group, you will likely feel ‘good’ about the speaking opportunity.

If however, you believe you are not good at speaking in public or believe the audience will laugh at you, you will likely have ‘bad’ feelings like nervousness and panic when you sign up.

There are of course not really any ‘good’ or ‘bad’ feelings, just preferences. For example, some people want feelings of nervousness or even panic for motivation to perform at their best. Others choose to avoid those feelings as much as possible and act accordingly.

Feelings as energy

Your feelings have energy of their own. Just like everything else in the Universe, they follow a principle of Like Attracts Like.

When you feel nervous or afraid, you will attract people and events to you that can make you more nervous or more fearful.

Similarly, if you’re feeling happy and grateful, people and events that reinforce those feelings will show up in your life.

Your feelings are part of a reinforcing cycle that includes your thoughts and beliefs. As you have feelings, they support and attract similar thoughts and beliefs. And the more intensely you feel those feelings, the more power and energy they bring to what ever it is you are focused on.

How can you use your feelings?

When you first sense them coming on, recognize them as feelings. Know your feelings are your response to what is happening. They are not you and they are not what is happening.

By seeing your feelings as something you can choose and influence, you stay empowered and don’t end up becoming or playing a victim.

Choose how important your feelings are to you. Do you want to embrace them or shed them? Do you want to replace them or enhance them? Your choice is based on what you want. Remember, you can choose to magnify the feelings or go in a different direction and ignore them.

Try it the next time you find yourself happy, angry, or sad.