What is it about our nature as humans that we enjoy investigating, exploring, and messing with the emotions of people, even ourselves.  What is the point of a movie like Seven Pounds that leaves you feeling such a mix of feelings that it’s over powering.  What is it about us that makes us push other people’s buttons, knowing that it’s going to drive them crazy…or just the opposite, know where to avoid because it still gives us some kind of control because we know we could set them off but choose not to….Maybe that’s it, maybe it’s a pleasure of feeling in control. 

Controlling someone’s emotions is definitely a way to control them….just as placing ideas into their heads…that is why advertising plays on things like the fear of the majority, or the idea that it will make you one of the crowd or above the average person.  These are all strategies in the advertising world, and they work because they are playing on the emotions…once you make that emotional connection, there is something for the product or idea to latch on ot in the mind of the person…something that they can’t get rid of.  People can’t control their emotions but you can control what is linked with them.

A very simple example is that, like most people I have always hated being sick, and all growing up my mom gave me a certain type of soda when I was sick, and to this day I hate it, even though I liked it when I was young and sick.  I now associate that soda with that feeling of being miserable and sick, I can’t help it and can’t get over it….well I probably could if I wanted to badly enough, but it just doesn’t seem like it’s worth that much effort. 

Why are we so obsessed with emotions and control….???  Why do we try so hard to control our emotions instead of just letting them be, since they are natural….It’s never the emotion that’s the problem, it’s the reaction to the emotions that we need to be careful of.

Tags: control, emotions
Filed under: Life