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Emotional Integrity

She approached me  
as a brat  
to try  
to force me  
to dominate her,  
 
and I simply  
explained  
that I don't punish,  
I only reward.
 
That made  
no sense  
to her  
because  
 
her domming
from the bottom  
was how  
she had always  
gotten others  
to lock her down  
 
and play her game  
of not really having  
to do her part  
to be responsible  
in any relationship.  
 
She simply  
road them  
down the road  
until the wheels fell off,  
 
extracted  
her victim card,  
 
and then went on  
to her next target.
 
I could see  
her entire game plan  
laid out  
in a single smile  
of pseudo innocence,  
 
and so  
I simply said,  
"Read this,  
and tell me  
what you think."
 
Emtional Integrity
 
Let's think for a moment about reaction and response as separate expressions. Reactions we can define as outward, and responses as inward.
 
When we react, we are working with things that happen to us. When we respond, we are working with those things around us.
 
When we react, something outside of us is attempting to consciously or unconsciously disrupt our peace of mind. When we respond, our peace of mind is not disrupted, and we operate from our core principles.  
 
When we react, we are defensive. When we respond, we are operating from detached awareness.
 
Let's likewise define feelings as separate from emotions so that feelings are reactive, and emotions are responsive.
 
When I react, my boundaries are not held or are non-existent. When I respond, I do so with assertive boundaries.
 
When I react, my peace is disrupted. When I respond, my peace of mind expresses through the integral force of my compassionate center, my heart.
 
How does this occur? Understanding.  And what occurs when I understand is that I abide in the truth of my heart, and I fully engage with the truth of the moment. In less esoteric terms, when my heart and mind agree, then I am at peace.
 
When I allow my mind to operate from dogmatic or doctrinal sources that disagree with my heart, my peace is disrupted.
 
My mind has the power to rationalize a reality that leaves the mind in control. My heart is my emotional center, the source of my boundaries.
 
When my intellectualization disagrees with my emotional source and I break my own internal boundaries, my mind fakes an alliance with the heart and creates feelings, reactions built on rationalizations.
 
In this way, I can abandon myself inwardly, react on these rationalized feelings, and act out against my own heart, breaking my own boundaries, and deluding myself that I am in control. "I am right," I rationalize.
 
12 step programs begin here. Buddhism starts here. Christianity starts here. Islam starts here. The source of my spiritual troubles is my willfulness to give myself over to something more powerful than my mind's ability to listen to my heart, the delusion of desire to be other than myself.  
 
If I am to recover, I must then submit to my heart, to my own boundaries in order to allow real self-discipline to reign over my life. My higher power is beyond the reach of my addiction to rationalization or to feelings that are governed by ego mind.
 
That process begins by learning gratefulness for what it is that has brought my reactiveness to my attention. Beyond religion or dogma or rationalization,  peace of mind is allowing to heart to have its say in the practice of mindfulness where unconditional love awaits inside, away from reactions of ego, pretension, misapprehension,  victimhood,  self-righteousness, condescension,  and all the trappings of denial, anxiousness, avoidance, and affectations, which are the creation of false emotions.  
 
These reactive feelings are the rationalizations of a defensive mind, a mind at war with its own heart. When the heart speaks and the mind responsively listens, then the mind can be at peace, and the heart holds the boundaries responsively, without the mind's egotistic reactions.  
 
"Is that a 'No,' on the spankings then?" she asked.
 
"That would be a 'No,' " I whispered.
Written by runningturtle87
Published
Author's Note
Mutual consent, negotiations, and power exchange are basic, necessary, and transformative. Don't leave home without them.
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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