Life-Denying and Life-Affirming Emotions
Generally speaking, mind-based emotions tend to be life-denying whereas experience-based emotions tend to be life-affirming.
Mind-based emotions tend to be life-denying because they are incongruent. They are based on our self-talk and mental images but expressed outwardly in our interactions with others as if they were experienced-based.
For example, mind-based anger expressed in our interactions with others frequently harms ourselves and others. It's life-denying because it inspires action against those with whom we interact even though they did nothing to prompt our anger. Our anger was mind-based, prompted by our own self-talk and mental images.
Experience-based emotions, on the other hand, tend to be life-affirming because they are congruent. They are our natural, life-affirming, emotional responses to our in-the-world interactions with others. They inspire us to action that is an appropriate response to what we experience in our interactions with others.
For example, when someone mistreats and harms us we can respond with anger. Our anger inspires us to act by defending ourselves from the threat. Such anger affirms our own life as well as the life of the one who threatened us. It says, "My life is valuable and worth protecting. Your life is valuable and worth correcting."
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