emotions

Contributed by Irene Watson, MA

I’ve encouraged people to write down their thoughts, visualizations, or goals. However, there are times when writing things down may not be a good idea. 

Entrusting something to paper or to the computer is like talking to a friend, but depending on what you write, make sure to use common sense and choose a reliable confidant. 

Journaling can be a tremendous way to relieve anger and stress. If we are going to journal, we need to keep our journal somewhere safe, whether it is somewhere private in our bedroom, or just in our home if we live alone. If we keep a journal on the computer, we want to make sure it’s not in a place where other family members can access it. 

A good rule of thumb is never to put in writing what you wouldn’t want the whole world to know. Another good rule is to go back later and read what you wrote before you decide to keep or send something. How many sitcoms have we seen where a love letter was mailed, and then the writer tries to retrieve it before it is read? 

One effective way to work out our emotional issues on paper while protecting ourselves is to burn the paper later—this helps create a feeling of cleansing or erasing of the problems and letting them go. It can be just as effective to write on the computer, then hold down the delete key, or even delete the entire document. 

Contributed by Irene Watson, MA

Everyone has to eat to survive, and it’s questionable whether there’s anyone alive who does not enjoy eating. Food is necessary for us. We eat to provide our bodies with nutrients and the energy to function. But food is far more than a necessity—it’s part of our culture, our social rituals, it’s a way of showing love, and a way of comforting ourselves. As a result, many people end up being overweight and developing a love-hate relationship with food. 

We hear ad nauseam about dieting and different techniques to lose weight. The problem is that when people do lose weight on one of these diets, they often quit dieting and the weight comes back. We can count calories, we can watch what we eat, but what is essential to resolving the issue of being overweight is to understand why we eat or overeat. 

It’s not my purpose to give nutrition or health advice. But I want to give a reminder about the connection between food and emotions. It is often our emotions that cause us to eat more and to eat what we shouldn’t eat. 

When you find yourself craving food, ask yourself, “Am I Really Hungry? What am I feeling at this moment that makes me want to eat?” 

People tend to be emotional eaters. We eat to comfort ourselves. Reasons why we may eat include:  loneliness, fear, stress, feeling overwhelmed, or feeling unloved or rejected. We’ve all seen movies where women dig into ice cream buckets after a breakup with a boyfriend. 

I know you think you do, but do you really? The normal stated purpose of this blog has been to reach out to other libertarians and libertarian leaning persons to help them with their philosophy, strategy, thinking, etc. I am breaking from that today to reach out to those who support state-ism. Those who think government programs are good, necessary, wise, and compassionate. Those who claim they care about those in need. I ask you again, do you really care about those in need, those who suffer?

It is easy to look at the world around us and see people in need. There are many. It is also easy to say that "someone" should do something about it. It is also easy to look to the government to be that "someone". The government is full of people making promises and ready to do what you demand in exchange for your vote without regard to the cost. They don't care about the cost because it is not their money. It is easy to forget the cost because, for the most part, it is not our money either. It is the money of the rich, or so the government people claim.

The thing is, the government should not be the "someone" to fix things, for a number of reasons: