Training

I am driven by emotion. Many people will say that is an undesirable attribute, unless they are a communication studies major at EIU! Emotions assist us in making moral decisions, building strong relationships with family and friends, and amongst other things, emotions give us the drive to be ambitious. Emotions make us human. In my opinion, our emotions are are strongest attribute, when trained the correct way.

When your emotions drag you into a drunken street fight, illegal activity, or anything foolish... you need to train them. It is often referred to as putting your emotions in check. Our greatest weapon has to be treated delicately, like a Pitt bull. If trained properly, they will protect you, look out for your best interest, and keep you warm while their weight shifts at the foot of your bed. But untrained, they will hurt you and those around you.

The emotion that gets the best of me often is loneliness. My daughter's father pursued with me the tenacity an adult, when we were 13 (little did i know at the time he had seen alot and had to grow up too fast). When we parted ways four years later, I quickly met someone else. He irritated me so i left him, and quickly met someone else. Then he pissed me off. And the cycled continued for over 3 years. I had the worse of both worlds. My emotions drove me to continuously desire a relationship (partly because I was accustomed to it, never really been alone). And my other emotion was my temper. I was so easily agitated, so willing to throw the man away.

In that way my emotions did not serve my best interest. I could not control my longing for a relationship so I tried my hand at being more tolerant... we all see how that turned out. I meta morphed into a door mat. Maybe I picked the wrong person to be tolerant with. Or maybe, instead of becoming more tolerant, I should have tried to suppress my longing for male companionship. My daughter's father truly spoiled me. I did not realize it, until I entered the real world. He treated me like a man treats his wife. He put my needs before his. His mom didn't keep any food in the fridge, but if i was hungry he would spend his last 3 dollars to buy me fast food, knowing full well I could go home and eat, and he'd be hungry all night. He would stand in the rain with no coat (because he put it over my head) and wait with me till my bus came, and many other selfless acts. Too bad he turned to a life of crime and womanizing. But I digress, my emotions drive me to seek out that same type of treatment and companionship in the present. When the truth is, I need sometime to be alone. Some time for self discovery, for healing, for growing, for focus. My emotions will have me up at night texting ex boyfriend's that are ex's for a reason...

I must train my emotions to see what's best for me. But... I don't know how. Open for suggestions...

Two Fold Affections

It is often very difficult to analyze ourselves. Mostly because analysis requires observation. How difficult is it to be the observed as well as the observer? However, I have found that writing down a series of actions and trying to view them objectively (typically from the outside looking in), you can see things a bit clearly.

I am obsessed with such things. I despise time wasting (unless I'm relaxing :-). So when I feel that any person, place, or situation has wasted my time. I will search the seven seas to find purpose in that person, place, or situation. I am a person who needs the peace of mind of being able to honestly say "it was a learning experience", if I can't... I feel foolish. Those of you who follow my blog or simply know me, know that I spent over 2 yrs in a hopeless relationship. When I look back on all he did do, he didn't, lied about, poorly reacted to, etc... I have to ask myself why did I tolerate. Because I am not a tolerant woman by nature. People would always ask me why I liked him. Because they were looking at the way he treated me. I would reply to them with a list of qualities he possessed, (funny, smart, good listener, down to earth,....). It was tonight that I discovered something that we all know, but do sometimes we don not realize we know.

Affections for someone come from one of two places, or both. There's how they treat you, and there's how they are. You can have feelings for someone because of their qualities. All the personality characteristics that you find admirable, desirable, and compatible with your own. This is usually the base of a relationship. The other column, is how they treat you. This person calls me often, brings me flowers, showers me with words of affirmation. I always liked Mr. R. Never liked the nonchalant fashion in which he treated me.

But the interesting part, is that he liked me for the other reason. He lost genuine interest in me a couple months into the dating because I pushed for a commitment. But he hung around, because I was willing to hop in my car and come to him, where ever he was ... no matter what I was doing or where I was at. His college career was ending when we met. I would send him encouraging texts before each interview. I never with held sex, helped him with anything he asked me too, even cleaned his filthy apartment.

So together we remained... we would part ways only to connect again... because I dug him... and he dug the way I treated him. Simple right? It didn't use to seem so. I could not understand why a man who said he did not love me, could not let me go. To be honest... his actions were reminiscent of a woman dating a man in medical school who she doesn't like. He liked what I had to offer: both what I currently brought to the table as well as the finances and potential (he perceived) I would bring to the table later on down the line.

So what did I learn? Again, fairly simple. Affections for anyone must come from both categories. The person's personality as well as how they treat you. If either of you are trying to build a relationship, neglecting the other column.. the house will collapse.

He Loves Me Not

On and off again... on and off again, that seems to be the pattern of the relationship I've been in for over the past two years. Mainly because I never know whether or not I can deal with being with someone who does not have feelings for me, that are as strong as the feelings I have for them. I mean it's not necessarily a deal breaker... or is it? How important is it that 2 people have the same level of emotion for one another at the same time? People do fall in love at different times right? Or is that wrong? Some days I can deal with loving a man who doesn't love me, because he says that he will, he just needs more time. But on the other hand, considering the amount of time that has lapsed, sometimes I think he'll never have substantial feelings.

Now his behavior has improved. He used to treat me like one of the guys... and now he treats me like a girl he likes. But because of his very slow movement forward. My feelings have began to move backward. The intense longing I use to have for him before I went to bed and when I woke up, has faded.

This could be due to the revelation I recently had. Rather or not I can cope with not hearing those 3 special words use to be a big topic of thought for me. But after a while, it became no big deal. They truly are just words, contrary to popular belief..

But what I cannot cope with is the treatment. I can no longer be treated like a girl that a guy just likes. Not at this stage of the game. The following will be a list of his actions, versus the action I wanted. The actions I wanted, were that of a man who loves his woman.

When a man likes a woman, and she's facing possible homelessness when she comes home from school, he consoles her. Tell her everything will be OK. When he loves her, his urge is to protect her, therefore he opens his arms and his doors to her despite the inconvenience it may cause. When he likes a woman he makes her familiar with his friends. But when he loves her, he makes her familiar with his family, because he wants those ties to her. When he likes a woman, and he does not have a phone he emails her and tries to make her laugh. But when he loves her, he'll spend the 30 bucks for a pre-paid phone, and 20 bucks for minutes so that he can at least call her and say goodnight. And lastly, when he likes a woman and she expresses concerns about where she stands in his life after his children come to reside with him, he gets standoffish because he thinks she's trying to make him choose between her and his kids. But if he loves her, he understands her concerns, he reassures her that there's room for her, and that he and her are a team. He starts making plans to get a bigger crib (down the road) so all them can fit.

I can deal with not hearing it, but I can no longer wait to feel loved. What makes this time different than all the rest? I am no longer wondering what I can and can't deal with. I know that I am not getting ALL that I need from this relationship. Now I just have to tell him, in a way that conveys the finality of this decision. Can't allow him to distract me from the issue. Wish me luck.