No emotion is bad – what comes of it depends on how you use it. Mahatman believes that you must channelize all your emotions, even the negative ones such as greed, anger, and fear to generate positive energy. So today I will discuss how emotionalizing your experiences can help you harness incredible reserves of energy to achieve your goals and attain Self Actualization.

It was Freud – the father of modern psychoanalysis – who explained the human psyche as made up of Id, Ego and Superego. The Id was the most powerful among the three because it was the bubbling cauldron of the irrational forces which had to be regulated by the conscious Ego for the human being to function in real life. The image he came up to illustrate was that of a rider trying to rein a wilful horse. What a striking metaphor, indeed! And chances are when you conceptualize these Freudian psychic forces in this manner, you will never forget which stands for what!

This practice of visualizing through imagery – is in fact one of the surefire ways of emotionalizing your experiences of the world. When you use a metaphor, painting or a mental picture to animate an abstraction or a concept, you are comprehending them in one of the strongest ways possible. This is because then the concept gets anchored to deep subconscious processes. Later when you wish to relive those concepts or experiences, all you have to do is to conjure up those images on the screen of your mind to utilize their full emotional power. For example, I love to be surrounded by pretty objects and so I find I work better when I keep a bowl of colourful flowers or take my laptop to a table where the window opens out to the mountains of Colorado. In the midst of natural beauty, time appears to dilate and I enter a state of creative flow. In this way evoking pleasurable emotions through sight and beauty helps me to function at a very superior level.

A well-entrenched mind exercise – that uses this power of imagery is creative visualization in Positive Psychology. Experts suggest that you make a mental image of your desired state – say acing a job interview or giving a public speech –  as detailed as possible. Focus especially on the sensory details – like the warm glow of the spotlight on you, the smell of spiced vanilla wafting around, the cozy feel of the indoors, the taste of a full-bodied wine and open, smiling faces of your co-workers. The reason why detailed visualization works is because the brain actually cannot differentiate between real and imagined memories. The more you repeat positive images in your mind, the more neural connections the brain keeps making so that the image seems more real and definitely achievable. And the more believable the image, the stronger are your associated emotions of love, hope and optimism.

• Do you remember a time when you rushed to your mother and held out a bruised knee or elbow for her to soothe with a kiss or a gentle pat. There have been many studies linking the power of human touch to arouse positive emotions such as gratitude, sympathy and love. Scientific research has shown that the touch of a loved one not only has a calming effect on stress but may actually help people to collaborate better – an example being sports teams which use ritualized touching – like high fives, huddle and celebratory piling of bodies upon the scorer of a goal.Indeed today there is a budding new line of complementary medicine called touch therapy – this includes a variety of techniques ranging from the virtually mainstream massage therapy to the medical fringe, such as Therapeutic Touch. All of these are based on theories that touching or manipulating the body or its so-called energy field can promote physical and emotional wellness. While the efficacy of such techniques to promote medical healing is yet to be proved, this much is clear that the sense of touch can evoke positive emotions in a person. So rather than compliment a partner, caress him or her with love; hug a co-worker rather than just using just verbal appreciation. Practice self-love by giving yourself a loving pat or gentle embrace – All these measures will go a long way in rousing emotions of positivity and energy that will really sustain you on the long gritty path of Self Actualization.

• Yet another way you can modify your immediate environment to feel and work better is to use the sense of smell. Think of how the smell of coffee can pep you up in the morning. Look for aromas that similarly inspire you by recalling positive emotions. For example, some people feel energized by citrusy smells while others may long for fragrances associated with certain past experiences to feel good. Indeed smells have the most personal meanings among the different types of sensory inputs. Researchers found that the smell of newly mowed grass or freshly baked bread are among the most favourite probably because they are associated with the carefree and pampered days of childhood. It is no secret that malls spritz vanilla in order to put shoppers in a good mood so that they can loosen their purse strings. Similarly certain fragrances have calming while others have stimulating effect on emotions. Find out what works for you and then use aromas accordingly so that you feel energized by positive emotions.

• The other sensory input for evoking the power of emotions is music – you only have to think about how armies play martial music to motivate soldiers to realize the immense appeal to the emotions that lies in music. Likewise slow melodies can put you in a romantic mood while plaintive tunes can evoke sadness and grief. A lot of studies have been looking into the ability of certain types of music to improve concentration, memory and learning. What is quite undeniable is the power of music to draw up emotions from the recesses of the heart and move the soul. While all this may be contested by rationalists, Mahatman asks why not use such a powerful resource rather than bicker over its logic? By all means listen to music that energizes you, hum an uplifting tune when you are faced with a demanding task or chant a powerful mantra that has personal powerful meaning for you. You will find that the emotions evoked by these combinations of notes will help you enormously in reaching for your goals.

• Of course, emotions are not just pleasing, relaxing, motivating and inspiring. As a human being with emotions, you are also likely to rage, envy, hate and cry. But rather than uprooting all emotions from your heart to avoid succumbing to negative emotions, why not make hurtful emotions your teacher? In other words, listen carefully to what envy is telling you – that you hate your high school pal who owns a company while you are still working for others. So ask yourself if you have the vision and grit to become an entrepreneur and then light the fire in your belly. Similarly harness the power of all emotions – the good, the bad and the ugly – till they are not just horses running amok but racing to take you to your goals. Mahatman believes that the time to think in binaries is over – heart vurses the head, brain versus body, logic versus feelings and so on. Instead it is your advantage to harness the immeasurable power of emotions in the right way so that they can motivate and energize you to work relentlessly towards your goals on the path of Self-actualization.