"Social Awareness"
Have you ever experienced being suddenly agitated, anxious, angry, and sad for no reason at all?
I know I have many times. I will then ask myself the question "where is this coming from?" These moments will generally happen when I'm around someone. It can even happen at a mall.
Then I get annoyed for being "annoyed."
Has this happened to you? There is a psychological name for this and it's "sociosensual awareness." Which means "the ability of someone else's moods to affect you at a physical as well as emotional level, and vice versa." (The Tao of Equus by Linda Kohanov, page 229)
I have been randomly reading pages from this amazing book and page 229 was an "ah ha" moment for me. Yes, I've heard about this many times but have never known the psychological name for it.
We are generally not conscious of it. We just start having physical and emotional symptoms of what is going on.
If horses can feel the stress, anxiety, fear of others what do you think humans can feel?
The good news is that once someone is aware of what's happening, they can then change the energy by affecting it in a positive way. It's that simple.
Being willing to "notice" the negative bombarding from someone else's emotion can actually be an opportunity to not run away, but send that person positive energy. Thus stabilizing the emotions and not participating in all that negativity.
Believe you me when I say, this can happen very, very quickly - a blink of an eye. One minute you're feeling great and the next minute you're down and angry.
It's never too late to learn to change the "energy" but it has to start with you. You can buy into it or you can send out positive energy (thoughts) to whomever is "causing" you problems. If you're in a mall, you may not even know who is causing you so much anxiety. Just changing the "feel of the emotion" for you, not buying into it, can change the emotion for someone else.
I hope I'm making sense. This has happened to me on various occasions. I've been told to put "white light" around me. That's great but there is more to do. You see, you can't avoid those feelings but you CAN change YOUR feelings.
It's all about awareness and a willingness to try something different. It's never to late to learn a "new trick." Are you ready to do that?
Here's your exercise for this month.
Notice your Social Awareness
Change Your World
This month I want you to notice:
1) When a friend is bringing you down
What's going on?
How are you reacting?
How can you change your reactions?
2) When you are suddenly anxious at work
What's going on?
How are you reacting?
How can you change your reactions?
3) When you are in a good mood and your partner is in a bad mood.
What's going on?
How are you reacting?
How can you change your reactions?
4) When you are in a good mood and your pet animal is in a bad mood or not well.
What's going on?
How are you reacting?
How can you change your reactions?
Journal these situations as they arise. Write them down. Use the questions included in this exercise and take notice. . There are no judgments because this is your life and your journal. But, be honest with yourself. How did you handle the negative situation(s)?
What will be different is that the more you notice and change the energy, the fewer times this will happen — because you have learned how to "handle it."
Please  me and let me know how you did with this exercise.
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