Your Emotions Are Your Internal Guidance System

All commercial jetliners have something known as the Inertial Guidance System, without which it would be impossible to operate them.

The purpose of the guidance system is to ensure that that aircraft does not stray too far from the flight path. The pilot uses this equipment to monitor the direction, velocity, and acceleration of the plane while navigating storms, turbulence, air currents, and reaching the destination on time.

While there is a straight-line path to the destination, a typical flight path is rarely straight. For 90% of the time, an aircraft strays off course, but the pilot manages to navigate the flight accurately and on time thanks to the inertial guidance system. As a result, the flight path for a plane looks something like this.

Our Emotions Are Our Internal Guidance System

Physical pain of any sort, even though uncomfortable, is beneficial. It indicates that something is wrong with your body. E.g., shooting pain in the right side of the stomach area could signify appendicitis. If you don’t pay attention and ignore the pain, it could prove to be fatal. So in a way, the physical ailment is the body signaling to you that something is wrong.

Similarly, in the mental plane, you encounter emotional pain in anxiety, unhappiness, dissatisfaction, anger, etc. These negative emotions signal that something is amiss with the way your life is going. They are a sign that something needs correction- whether it is the way you think about the world or what you are doing in the world – or both. The emotional pain, like your physical pain, is simply saying, ” Hey, there is an issue!!”

Your emotions are your Internal Guidance System. Their job is to keep you going towards your life goals and like the pilot uses the Inertial Guidance system, you have to use your emotions as your internal guidance system- you negative emotions indicate that you are straying off course- you make changes, course correct and restore emotional balance- your emotions stray off course again- you course correct……and so it goes. Life is all about continuously using your emotions as an internal guidance system to help you recognize that your life path is going off course so the you can keep bringing it back to the path that takes you where you want to go.

Staying The Course

The way to course-correct and deal with your emotional challenges is always through an exploration process- self-help books, friends, support groups, mentors, coaches, or whatever seems right for you when you reach out for help. As long as you acknowledge that there is emotional pain and reach out to deal with it, help will always be there. Solutions emerge only when you are seeking them. If you are busy defending whatever you are doing and trying to protect the course you have chosen for yourself, you will perpetually be off course and never reach your goals, your destination.

When you pay attention to the emotional clues that suggest “time to course correct,” you will always end up where you want to be or at least in the vicinity.