Mindfulness about second-order emotions
Situations -- both real and hypothetical -- often create an emotional response in our minds, which we express in a variety of ways. The general belief is that emotional responses are "irrational" and need to be replaced with stoic and dispassionate reasoning. But emotions are what makes us human and embody the essence of life. Emotions are our naturally endowed physiological responses to stimuli -- it is our "firmware" in computer science parlance. This firmware logic is encoded in our genes and essentially embodies the essence of what our genetic ancestors experienced. Our emotional reactions are hence an important repository to understand our history -- basically the unwritten and experiential part of our personal history that we won't find in history textbooks. Emotional turmoil and mental trauma results not from these emotional responses, but from our "second-order" emotional responses. Next time, observe how you feel about things. But m