Feeling Feelings

A lil play on words there. Trying to look at various things with new eyes, such as satan, hell,suffering,sin,and feelings and confidence. Tradition plays a huge part in our lives for the most part in so many ways. We have family traditions, occupation traditions, individual traditions and religious traditions. A lot of them develop over time and become so just by virtue of repetition. We don't think about them really they become habitual and part of our rhythm of life. I love the story of how one year whil trying to cook a ham for a holiday dinner a woman cut off a huge hunk of the ham. Her children asked her why and she said her mother had always done it that way. So she asked her mother and her reply was oh well that is how my mother always did it. Naturally they then went to great grandma and asked her why she cut the end off the ham because the pan she was using was too small to fit the whole ham!!!! LOL Love that story because it illustrates how many times we may not even have a knowledgeable reason for why we do something.

That story lends itself to the purposes of a different post than the one i intend here so bear with me, allow it to apply to some of the things i mentioned in my first few lines. i have always had a hard time with confidence. I have enumerated the reasons why in many past posts over these last 4 years. One of the struggles has been to develop a sense of confidence when for varying reasons it seems there is none to be found. For me a huge issue was trying to understand how i could have confidence when the treatment i got from so many other people was undermining to having any sense of confidence. Of course its a mixed bag, many affirmations were given by people as well, especially family and friends. But when you are emotionally sensitive and fragile negative reactions become superimposed over and above the positive. I learned to find confidence in doing certain things because I knew i could do them, but that underlying sense of confidence has been so elusive, even though as I got older my mind fully comprehended why it was supposed to be there.

Is confidence linked to feelings??? Can we feel our way to confidence or is confidence an act of the will and a thought that results in feelings?? Feelings are fleeting are thry not??? Can we force ourselves to feel a certain way??? When it says to have confidence what part of that involves feelings and if feelings are involved how do you nail then down to stay put instead of scurrying away??? I hope this is not too convoluted and scattred in ways that make it hard to understand. Sometimes it seems to me I have let the simplest things become packed by so much excess junk attached to them over the course of time. I'm hoping many of you have dealt with these things to some degree and have some direction on how you came to conclusions and realizations. How much do feelings matter in regards to confidence???

Lil update, my gout is gone again and i am sticking with water. Here's to taking control to maintain that as lifestyle change of permanence and to stick to healthy eating. Anyone have experience with herbs or supplements that are helpful in dealing with diabetes and heart disease??? Just curious if anyone found natural helps in dealing with these areas. Thanks all !!!