Question:    It seems that when I feel I’m focusing pretty well on the positive and feeling pretty good something always happens to bring me crashing down (emotionally). Why is that?

Higgins:     Envision a piano keyboard. Each key represents a note from low on the far left to high on the far right. Humans are much like a keyboard: they can express a range of emotion from low to high.

Emotions are expressed to the Universe as vibration. In much the same way that a stone tossed into water sends out expanding concentric circles upon the surface of the water each emotion that you experience sends out expanding concentric wave forms into the Universe.

Lower vibrations are slower and tend to not feel very good and higher vibrations are faster and tend to feel positive.

Each of you has the capacity to experience, to feel, each emotional note upon the human keyboard. However, it is very common to develop what we call an emotional set point. By set point we mean an emotion that is easy to reach that is a sort of fall back point.

When you drive down the freeway and see and feel the grooves in the pavement where cars have driven that is what we mean by set point. You’ve driven in this particular emotional spot so much that it has worn a sort of groove and it’s easiest to coast along in that emotional groove than to move either direction for moving out of the groove can be quite bumpy.

When you focus intentionally on the positive you are moving from your set point of something less positive. Unlike a keyboard in which you can touch one key far left and then one key far right emotions cannot be skipped over. You may race through them very quickly from time to time, like dragging the thumbnail over the keyboard from one end to the other but you cannot move the set point by jumping. Each emotion must be acknowledged between your set point and the emotion you’d like to reach and the deeper the groove you’ve worn the more emotionally painful it may be to do that.

That is why it seems that when you are focusing pretty well on the positive and feeling pretty good something happens to bring you crashing down emotionally. You’ve simply expanded too many vibrational/emotional notes beyond your set point.

Much like muscle-building you must make regular effort to achieve goals. Each effort to seek the positive emotions helps move you up the scale a little at a time. Depending upon how entrenched you are in your set point it could take years of practice to move well up the scale. Some people will move easily and quickly up the scale and some will convince themselves they are higher on the scale than they are thus inhibiting their expansion.

Those who over-estimate their emotional set point have the most difficult time moving up emotionally.

The most important thing to note is that while it may take some time to achieve the full benefit of this practice, each time you seek the better feeling you feel better. Feeling better positively reinforces the desire to keep trying. This is important because those down times can be very bitter when you are steadily becoming used to feeling good.

Remember in those down times to allow yourself to feel down. Do not dwell in the down times but do allow yourself to grieve for that acknowledgment of the depth of your emotion is processing time that will assist you in taking your next emotionally forward step.

Received September 25, 2012 at Lake Goodwin, Washington