Emotional Reactivity

Where does it come from

Habit

Reactivity is largely a function of habit. Remember Pavlov's dog: A bell rings, dinner brought out, the dog salivates. Again and again. Eventually, a bell rings, and the dog salivates, no food to be found. Reactivity is often no different from this.

Say a boundary was constantly violated in the past by an abusive person. The body reacts. Perhaps 20 years ago, beaten down, feeling utterly helpless, only terrible words and thoughts brought up a semblance of power. Perhaps you started to hate, bringing up this feeling of faux- power whenever this person violated your boundary. Say a decade later a completely different person is loud, talking too much, not letting you speak. The boundaries feel violated in a very similar way. All manner of ill will and hatreds come up.

This is similar to cargo-culting.

In the early through the mid 20th century, some indigenous people in Melanesia in the south pacific would witness foreign militaries bringing valuable cargo by air and sea. At some point they developed ritualistic practices mimicking what they had observed—building mock airstrips, control towers, and radios from local materials—believing these actions would summon the cargo. They saw part of the story, but were not aware of the broader truth, the vast technological and economic systems behind that cargo.

The body does something similar. The body reacts to ghosts, cargo culting a perhaps appropriate reaction to something that happened long ago, of causes and conditions that have arisen and passed away long ago, unaware of the causes and conditions of this very moment. The matrix re-forms again.

This is an excerpt from my upcoming mini-book Emotional Reactivity: What It Is and How to Release It, available soon on Amazon or via PDF.

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