The Greatest Emotion

“Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.”

― Elizabeth Gilbert

“I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”

― Oscar Wilde

We wade through the sea of life on a boat called 'Emotions'. Sounds a little melodramatic- but it is not too far from the truth, is it? We are driven by our emotions, guided and molded by them.Our emotions are under the influence of our thoughts and we, ourselves, are at the mercy of our emotions. Of course, we would, like Oscar Wilde, wish to be free from these shackles and lord over our emotions ; control them. But it is only easier said than done.

Start counting on your fingers and you will be able to make a comprehensive list of emotions that engulf our lives: Anger, Joy, Love, Hatred, Agony, Ecstasy, Guilt, Happiness, Inspiration, Motivation, Frustration, Irritation, Hope, Regret and a few more. The first thing that you will notice is how these emotions can be broadly categorized as: Positive and Negative. Another mention must be made to the fact that most of these emotions are similar in their basic nature: they differ only in their intensity.

Coming to the basic question, which of these is the most powerful? For that purpose, we will need to reduce them to a few very basic constructs. Unfortunately, we cannot use a statistical tool like IBM's SPSS and apply Principal Component Analysis to reduce these dimensions. But jokes apart and fortunately, we do not need that. Ponder over it for some time and you will realize that Love and Fear are the two base emotions and all others can be considered as their sub-categories.

Michael Leunig wrote:

" There are only two feelings: love and fear.

There are only two languages: love and fear.

There are only two activities: love and fear.

There are only two motives, two procedures, two frameworks, two results:

love and fear. Love and fear."

Love and Fear, everything that you do is inspired by one or the other. Also, these two cannot co-exist. If we talk in terms of the end results, love will definitely supersede fear, but the question is not of finding out which of the two is better, but rather one of  impact- which of these wields more power over us. It is in this regard that one realizes the greater authority of fear over love. Love can push you in the pursuit of a dream, fear can pull you back citing hindrances and obstructions on that path. Whatever Love can drive you to do, Fear holds the power to put brakes on it.

Fear of loneliness, Fear of failure, Fear of rejection, Fear of humiliation, Fear of death and fear of the Unknown are some of the major forces that regulate our day-to-day behavior. Think deeply and count the number of times we have taken the easier route: not going to speak in front of the class, not taking an innovative approach to solving a problem, not doing the morally right thing, not helping someone in dire need, not saying what is in our heart or what is in our mind, for that matter. All these result from the above mentioned fears which trump the lines of action that Love would have otherwise chosen for us.What our parents will think of us, What our peers and elders think of us, What will the society think of us; all these fears override the love we have for things/people and the paths we wish to tread to achieve our aims.

Certainly, fear rules us and to be honest, it cannot really be done away with. But Again, fear is not all negative and evil. It can be modified, twisted and transformed into a tool for greater self-awareness-- an acknowledgement of our limitations, a realization of our strengths and a driving force to generate determination and courage. Fear is not  something to escape from, it is something that needs to be embraced. Agreed that it is a bad master, but it can also turn into a great servant. After all, it is the greatest emotion that there is.

"I have accepted fear as a part of life – specifically the fear of change…. I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back."  -Erica Jong

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”

― Eleanor Roosevelt

"What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it."

-J. Krishnamurti