Here's a quick and easy way to think about Emotions. Liken them to Hot Rods! Or cars.
I thought it was so fitting to liken emotions to Hot rods because emotions are what drives anything we do or don’t do. Emotions or feelings are what get us to wake up at 5 in the morning for that fitness class. It’s what gets us to work every day. It’s what creates the relationships we have.
We do or don’t do things based on how we think it will make us feel. We want that sports car because of how we think it will make us feel by having it. We build that hot rod in the garage for years because of how we think it will make us feel to accomplish building it, driving it and showing it off to friends or fellow hot rod lovers.
As I was growing up my uncle seemed to always be building something fun in his garage with his boys. For the majority of the time I remember that they were building a red, hot rod type of a car. Now….I’m not someone who should be talking about cars, especially old, cool, cars because I will slaughter terms and the like but I’m going to do it anyway.
I think they were building a T-bucket, at least that’s what we call it. Whatever it’s proper term and class of car was….it was so fun to watch them build through the years. It was the most fun to watch them once it was ready to hit the streets. Apple red exterior with an open top and white leather seats. Big, hot, noisy exhaust.
Everyone got to ride and it’s still in the family so now our children get to take rides in the T bucket. So fun.
I think that emotions are a lot like cars.
They can look amazing on the outside but if they don’t have a good engine and if we don’t spend time doing the work on it they’re just a pretty frame.
People may be attracted to the outside of it but when you’re asked to turn on the engine and it doesn’t start or work very well then people really don’t stay very interested.
If we think of our emotional health like the engine of our frame or bodies then we will realized that the work needs to be done on the engine or our emotional health.
If we ignore the regular maintenance then things start to screech, click, and making knocking noises.
We will find ourselves on the side of the road overheated. We all know the saying. We repeat what we don’t repair. I did a podcast on that a few episodes back. Ep. 9. Go check that one out.
Sometimes the repair can be small other times the repair is large.
Sometimes the repair is due to lack of maintenance. Other times it’s because there was a hail storm or we have an accident.
Are you getting how I’m likening this to emotions?
We can also choose to pay for a more thorough maintenance to optimized performance. Right? That’s coaching…if you’re catching what I’m throwing here. Coaching is the full engine tune up. It’s what will make everything run like new. There are also things you can add to the tune up to increase the performance above where you bought it. Coaching just makes everything so much cleaner and run smoother. Who’s your coach?
We can get a coach that teaches us amazing tools for our life and it’s like getting a car with power steering. It just makes the whole driving experience much easier.
Your body also has internal engine indicators. If you pay attention, keep an eye out and listen to your body you will be a able to sense when something isn’t quite right and get the maintenance or help that you need before the issue is large and possibly damaging.
Our bodies need care and attention. I’m talking about the inside right now. Our emotions are super important. They are what drives us. It’s what gets us from point A to point B. It’s what helps us to even decide what we want point B to be.
Emotions are powerful and worth getting interested in.
