I get that we're emotional creatures, and this influences what we do many of the times. To rule out emotions from what we do is to rule out much of the aliveness that's an inherent part of life.
For the most part, the rational mind views things from a black and white perspective, whereas through our emotions, there are multiplicity of colors.
Taking the notion that the white color contains every other color, one could say that the rational mind tries to oversimplify life into two default metrics, but the catch is much of the nuances are missed in the process.
For example, there's good in the bad and bad in the good, both can be so intertwined that it's quite impossible to separate one from the other without losing the essence of the whole. I think that's what living in a complex, interconnected world does to us.
Being emotionally vested has a lot to do with letting our emotions be the guiding point of focus in whatever we do. This can be interpreted both in a good way and not so good way.
Going back to the inherent aliveness aspect of life that's accessed through emotions, we essentially experience life more vividly. If life is a circle, we occupy the whole circle, both circumference and diameter.
Fullness For Life
When we're children, it's a natural stage we find ourselves in, fullness for life. Then during our teenage years and progressing into adulthood, the mind incarnates, and we start operating more from the rational mind.
I've always had this tendency to rebel against extremity, because the fuller a thing gets, and we feel that fullness, when it eventually becomes empty, the emptiness can really be crushing. Some call it the law of equal and opposite reaction. I prefer to view it more as a natural rhythm of life.
In our contemporary world, being too emotionally vested comes with a load of unnecessary complexity.
The inability to process loss or take a loss without the help of the rational mind can be paralyzing, in the sense that we find ourselves unable to move on from a failed relationship or cut our losses in a failing business venture long after the actual experience has passed.
How could we not listen to the voice that whispers, "It's time to move on," when our hearts are screaming to hold on?
Forever Stuck In The Past
Similarly, it's also easier to cling to outdated ideas or situations long past their expiration date, simply because we're too emotionally invested to let go.
I think the KO of being overly emotionally invested is that it leaves us vulnerable to manipulation and overwhelm, especially with this aspect of saturated information and over stimuli.
Without any "rational regulation" to ground us, every news headline or social media post we come across has the potential to send us on a mini emotional rollercoaster.
I often notice it mildly when scrolling through YouTube on my subscription page. Even without clicking on any video, each title and thumbnail that I've scrolled through has invoked a certain emotion in me, going on a mini emotional journey with each swipe.
Without the grounding influence of rationality, we may well exhaust ourselves emotionally, getting burnout in the process and becoming detached from the very aliveness we sought to embrace. With most things in life, moderation is key.
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