Scripting Your Life

Much of what occurs to us every day is a result of automatic emotional responses known as fight or flight. New thoughts are compared with past experience in microseconds and our bodies react from emotional signals that move us towards or away from stimuli. We are programmed with internal scripts that command our actions. But where do these scripts come from? Are they just accepted reactions that we prefer or do we have the power to reprogram these responses? Much debate has ensued over whether we have control over our emotions or not.

The basic plan for a play is the script. It is a series of directions and dialogue for actors, stage hands, musicians and the lighting crew to use to coordinate the observed action onstage. Without a script there would be many miscues, or the worst, chaos. The playwright decides what action and dialogue takes place at the appropriate time. It is a coordinated effort between the implementers of the play to follow the directions of the playwright. When all actions and dialogue are executed on cue, the play’s performance is seamless. The audience gets involved in the action and doesn’t even realize that they are witnessing a play. It is automatic. Our emotional responses are so scripted that we follow their cues automatically without challenge in crisis situations. By employing scientific analysis of emotional scripts and employing conscious relaxation techniques, we can reprogram our automatic emotional responses to be more effective in actualizing our goals and desires.

In order to understand our emotional responses, we must dig down deep into the core of the basic emotions. Many theorists have identified what they deem as basic emotions. These basic (primary) emotions are combined, or layered to produce secondary emotions. In order to identify the root emotion, we must peel off the layers through the process of conscious relaxation. What is conscious relaxation? It is a state where we are completely conscious of our breath and bodily functions while releasing our conscious control of our thoughts; or what is commonly referred to as meditation. It is a state where we do not generate commands, but listen to the echoes in our minds and bodies. It is the time where we make ourselves a priority in order to relax our system enough to release any built up stress that is caused by our thoughts and emotional reactions to these thoughts. Recognizing and observing facts concerning our lives can only be accurate in a less stressful state. Stress masks our ability to discern between fact and opinion.