Our mind is a palace of emotions.
It consists of several facilities, bedrooms, and living rooms. Some are bright, with slit windows letting in sunlight that makes the decoration shine. Some have flowers with dazzling aromas and armchairs made of soft fabrics.
In these rooms, we socialised to the sound of unforgettable music, tasting delicious food, living moments of joy and euphoria.
In some other rooms, we shared feelings of passion, love and friendship.
Its walls were painted by our best attitudes, such as courage, compassion, gratitude, and altruism.
Then there are the places where you feel peace. You hear the birds singing. You listen to the sound of the calm breeze, the water flowing down the waterfall.
In short, in this wing of the palace we have experienced moments that we would like to relive forever.
Professor Clovis de Barros offers an interesting take on this matter, quoting Nietzsche. “When life is good, you do not want it to end at that moment. Live in a way that makes you wish the moment you lived would be eternal. Live in such a way that makes you want to continue living as you currently do. And that’s the symptom of the good life.”
This palace also has its basements and dungeons. Dark, sad and mouldy places. There we feel unpleasant, disgusting smells. There we learn about cruelty, envy, betrayal and loss.
In these spaces, we experience pain, suffering, anguish, and sometimes depression.
There are also some hidden rooms that have left their mark over time. We do not know when they were built. They have no name. They lead to unjustifiable feelings and they influence our lives. We only discover them by revisiting the palace countless times and paying attention to the details.
When we find their key, the light comes in and everything becomes clear. They become part of one of the familiar wings of the palace.
Between these wings there are also intermediate floors, where weapons and shields are stored, for the moments when we fight battles with enemies or saboteurs. Some of these floors reek of boredom, sometimes tending towards discouragement or awakening creativity, inviting us to climb to the upper floors.
This palace is so big that, in order to better live in it, we should draw a plan with the names of the rooms and their keys, so that we may find the way to them whenever necessary.
The names of each compartment and their keys should be listed in the form of a dictionary. These names have an emotional meaning associated with them, experienced in moments from the past. They are triggers that set off the emotions we see fit to feel in the present. They are switches that can illuminate our past life in order to discover and overcome obstacles.
There is nothing good or bad about this palace. There are facilities that can be used favourably or unfavourably, according to our convenience.
They can save us or condemn us.
They can mean heaven or hell.
Throughout our lives, we can keep building, remodelling, or demolishing our palace. The quality of our journey towards our greater purpose depends on the effort we put into this endeavour.
Depending on our goals, when we consciously revisit each of the facilities in the palace, that life has built within us and discover new facilities we can make good use of the past if.
This is the palace of motivation.
Imagination is about reshuffling the memories we lived in these facilities, making new combinations.
This process is the most effective way of learning from the past, living in the present and enlightening the future.
This dictionary is used for almost everything in life. It is very important to perfect it. It allows you to make powerful neuroassociations.
You can associate anything that you strongly desire with a moment of great pleasure, joy, euphoria, peace. If it is something that you do not desire, associate it with fear, anger, disgust, anguish, or any seriously painful emotion.
Check your “dictionary”, use the triggers, the anchors that will set off these moments, over and over again, until you achieve the results you want.
Being a problem maker or a solution maker depends on the ability to focus where you want.
And the quality of your life will depend on your ability to improve your palace of emotions using your imagination.
You can change beliefs. You can acquire or get rid of habits.
If you wish to have a good life, invest in your memories. Relive them, write them down, collect them.
Specialise in yourself.
With the map that shows you the routes to take, and your dictionary within your reach, you will be able to withstand any kind of living.
In this dictionary, you should pay special attention to the moments that relate to purpose, commitment, determination, discipline, breakthroughs, resilience, imagination, focus, habits, routines and, above all, the courage to act.
Use golden keys to open these compartments. Take care of them as if they were sacred places.
Relive moments when you had the courage to train and use them. Moments when you succeeded or failed, because you acted or failed to act. Whenever you have or you recall an emotion while you are living life, hurry and open up a new room in your palace.
I do not seek to convince anyone.
You will convince yourself once you start recalling your stories, once you know how to use them and start living the life you desire.
To live is to know how to maintain good emotions. This can be done by opening your “palace of emotions” on the page that suits you.