This idea might seem absurd.

Our assumption might be that, being the human beings we are, we have emotions and must feel them.

It’s true.

And yet.

According to Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, emotions are a “90-second chemical process that happens in the body.” It’s a process that appears, moves through the body, and disappears.

How long do emotions last for you? One second or less? 10 seconds or less? 10 minutes or more? Hours?

While the 90 seconds might still be an approximation, it might still serve as an indication.

Those of us who only experience emotions for a very short period might never have been taught that emotions are useful. They have grown up with the notion that one should not be sad, angry, jealous, or fearful. The same might be true for joy. Listening to these teachings, they have learned to push the emotion away at its appearance. Feeling an emotion triggers a response that seeks to push it away or deny it.

But that’s an effort to control a chemical process that is occurring in our body. It may seem that one can reject it and thus prevent it from moving through the body, but what happens instead is that the process is stopped in the body. As it needs to move, it’ll eventually come back to the surface.

Those who experience emotions for much longer than 90 seconds have a different reaction to the emotion. They are stuck in it. They use their thoughts to re-stimulate the chemical change and establish an emotional loop. It’s a mood.

Feeling an emotion is the ability to stay with the chemical process as it moves through the body. It’s the ability to observe it without judgment, to let it appear and disappear.