Let's Practice Loving Politics: Using Emotion to Think Clearly and Deepen Compassion

SKILLFUL USE OF EMOTION IS THE SOLUTION Fear, terror, dread, anger, rage, hate, grief, anguish, resentment...these are just a few of the acutely painful feelings and emotions that we can experience because of the political decisions that we or others have made. In fact, every emotion that we human beings are capable of experiencing, even those we consider pleasurable and desirable, will influence the political decisions that we and others will make even if we are unaware of them. Because of this we are handicapped, possessing emotional vulnerabilities, including the fight or flight response, that often lead us to commit acts of neglect and violence. HOW do we protect ourselves? Instead of avoiding our feelings and emotions we tackle them head on by experiencing them fully using tears and laughter. This is what frees us to be intelligently loving.