Cloudscape

Emotion and reason should know their place. Emotion should not be reasoned about and reason should not be based on emotion. They can, nonetheless, be connected.

Emotions are, for a large part and perhaps entirely, experiences which are embedded within sensations, in the form of impressions. The sensations in which emotions are imbued may be real or exist only in imagination. Thus, to better become aware how you feel, try to attribute emotions to your sensations, including sight, sound, touch, smell (and to a lesser extent, perhaps taste). When you are aware of how you feel,  to feel better, try to imagine that you fill every sensation with positive emotions.

In future, when perhaps all experiences can be shared through direct neural interface, the mere fact of experiencing would become art and the only art. Anything could be created by merely imagining it; by imagining an image, it could become a painting; by imagining a melody, it could become a composition; by imagining a scene, it could become a movie; but even emotions, thoughts or any other experiences could become a form of art, and be shared as they were experienced by the individual. There would be artists who would try to achieve the most beautiful possible experiences to share them with others, be those experiences in reality or in their minds.

Give negative feelings as much love as positive emotions, but shun negative thoughts. In fact, perhaps negative feelings would not be called negative were it not for negative thoughts that judge them thus.

Ensure that in your winters you will retain as much yang as possible to complete the yin of winter, but also accept the yin it brings; meanwhile, ensure that in your summers you will retain as much yin as possible to compensate the yang of summer, but also accept the yang it will bring. Remedy not what there is too much but what there is too little.

Mood affects expression, but so too expression affects mood. Use your expression both as a gauge of how you feel and as a lever to change it.

Neither resist nor cling to either sadness nor joy, for both will become both harmful when and only when we do so. Know when either comes among the other, for then it is time to become mindful of it; if you ignore it, it will eventually seize control over you. Instead, we should just let them be what they are when they come, and love them as part of our experience with neither fear nor craving.

Our emotions are a compass for what we should do; we should therefore listen to that compass. We must know when we feel negative energy that it is time to rest, and we must know when we feel positive energy that it is time to work. If we do not do so in time, the transition will become painful.

This is especially important to people who are bipolar. Bipolar people are in pain because out of craving they cling to their (hypo)mania so long that when they finally face their depression, it is painful. Eventually, when they've accepted their negative energies, the depression then assumes the form of a deep peace. Out of fear, they then cling to the tranquility of their depression so long that it eventually becomes painful again when they face their hypomania. When they've then accepted their positive energies, their hypomania then assumes the form of a deep happiness. Then, the cycle begins anew. In fact, neither depression nor (hypo)mania have to be painful, as they are just periods of inactivity and activity, respectively. Only the transition can be painful if it is resisted.

All of us have such a cycle, although for the average human, it is less significant. Because of this, the bipolar cycle can be a useful model to understand the average human's emotional cycles as well.

All emotions are motivated in some way or other by some kind of love; even fear, for if one loved nothing one would have nothing to fear; even hate, for if one did not love to hurt one would have nothing hate; even loathing, for if one did not love that which is opposed to what one loathes, one would have nothing to loathe. Therefore, without love one is emotionless, and that is why love alone, in some form or other, is the only thing that can resolve emotionlessness.

As all emotions have some element of love, the only thing which could be fully opposed to love would be indifference - or not even indifference, as even that can perhaps said to be an emotion sometimes. Rather, then, the only thing we could call it is unlove; that which falls towards lower levels of beauty, closer to nothingness, whereas love strives towards greater beauty, closer to infinity.

When feeling an emotion such as anger and despair, observe them as though it were a leak of energy and no more than this — a leak that needs to be sealed — thereby encouraging you to do so, as well as to take an objective distance from the emotion.

There are always two ways of dealing with a feeling, either by dealing with its material cause or dealing with its psychological cause. Choose whichever feels most efficient.