smokes: (don't have to pretend)

2

[personal profile] smokes 2024-08-16 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
so sometimes emotions are like instincts right
like you see a bear in the woods and your brain is like oh shit i know that thing could kill me i should probably be scared about it
until adrenaline kicks in like nah
but anyway there's stuff like that but then there's stuff like being sad, right, and that's different
anyway
you can't control how you feel but you can control what you do with your feelings
and that's on a counselor i had in eighth grade
counterstep: (are u mad)

[personal profile] counterstep 2024-08-16 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
wait wait
hold on




your instinct is to FIGHT the bear???

( alex, what. )
smokes: (no way ⁠— forget it)

[personal profile] smokes 2024-08-16 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
no!!!
you use adrenaline for flight too dude
although now i see how it sounds like i was gonna fight it
counterstep: (can we not)

[personal profile] counterstep 2024-08-16 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
yeah the "nah" really sounded more dismissive than worried, man...

controlling how you feel is the same as choosing though, isn't it? cause like how else does your mood change at all? if you're never directing the emotions, you'd probably just feel a lot of the same things forever, no?
smokes: (and he tells me "gee i'm not sure")

[personal profile] smokes 2024-08-16 06:49 pm (UTC)(link)
you're not controlling your feelings, you're controlling what you do about it
i'll keep using my bullshit as an example
when i was a kid i'd get so fuckin mad and act out on it all the time
i learned to walk it off, go count my breathing or something
if i'm walking it off, i'm STILL mad as fuck, but i'm CHOOSING to do something besides break a lamp
so i guess that way you're kind of directing, yeah
but you're still choosing to do something
it's not like sitting there going "i've decided not to be mad now"
it's going "i'm going to do something that might help me be less mad, here's hoping it all works out"
counterstep: (тревога)

[personal profile] counterstep 2024-08-16 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
right but you're CHOOSING to stop feeling that way and making it happen
you're the one that actually stops making you feel mad so you're still making the decisions

you're not really hoping in the way you described at all because you're actually trying to make yourself less mad during it

like you're making it seem like choices have to be a switch but you can gradually change you mind about something, can't you? which means you're changing how you're feeling
smokes: (by subway)

[personal profile] smokes 2024-08-16 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
i'm choosing to try and stop feeling that way
if i'm still mad after i have my time out, then i was choosing to not be mad but it didn't work out, i'm not choosing to keep being mad

okay so check it
feelings are sparks firing off in your brain about whatever's happening around you
like haven't you ever felt some way and you know you shouldn't. that's the logic part of your brain going "this is what's happening and what it would make sense to feel" and some other part of your brain is like "cool story but i'm listening to all the chemicals and shit the rest of our body made over here" and that part is usually louder

and yeah you can gradually change your mind but that's probably a bunch of little stuff that you're doing over time, or learning new stuff that changes your feelings, because your feelings aren't about the same thing anymore

i think you're overthinking it
why are you thinking so much about it anyway