Copyright 2006 Cari Vollmer

You wake up on the wrong side of the bed. You snap at your friends and family. Stress fills your days and when your day is over, and you're exhausted, you can't sleep.

Nothing feels quite right. Your zest for life diminishes, and your desire to DO disappears.

You know you're not depressed but emotionally you're not feeling your best. Your perpetual bad day has you thinking a change is in order.

A change of pace --- A change of scenery --- A change of position ---

A change of something.

But even though you know a change is needed, figuring out what needs changing is a little harder to pinpoint.

With so many demands on your energy and time you feel as though you can't even begin to figure out what should stay and what should go.

And that will continue to be the case UNLESS you pay attention to ---

your emotions.

Your emotions play an important role in helping you know whether something in your life is working or not working.

Every emotion you experience is a GIFT your body gives you to tell you whether you're on track or off track.

Your emotions express how you're feeling about the world around you based on your beliefs, values, goals and even your higher purpose. For simplicity sake, you can classify your emotions into two categories: emotions that feel good and emotions that feel bad.

For example: David works at a job where there is a lack of leadership. In fact, the leaders he works for are demanding, domineering and don't seem to care about their employees.

But David values teamwork and has a deep seated belief a leader's main job is to connect with his/her employees in a way that makes them feel cared about and valued.

How does this affect David? He gets a knot in this stomach every day when he goes to work. His shoulders are tight. His jaw is set. He experiences anxiety over the thought of interacting with the leaders he works for. Not only that, he is more irritable than usual and finds he lashes out at his family for no good reason.

Has David noticed the signs something was off? Absolutely! In fact, from day one David knew in his gut something was off but didn't understand his emotions were his path to discovering what that was.

He kept going to work until one day he had had enough. Then, as if he came to life overnight, he realized his emotions/feelings had been trying to get his attention all along, telling him he was in the wrong place for him.

So if this particular job was such a wrong fit for David, why did he take it in the first place?

For the same reason most of us get into similar situations, he rationalized his reasons for taking a job he didn't feel was right, instead of honoring what he felt was right. He applied logic (his thinking brain) to the situation but ignored his feelings. And that left him making a decision that wasn't right for him in the long run.

When we make decisions based on logic only and forget to check in with our feelings, we risk doing things we really don't want to do.

If you let them, your emotions will become your most powerful ally on your way to creating a life that not only works well, but feels great! Emotions are like a built-in measuring device, telling you if you're on track or off. Your emotions are accurate and always have something to tell you.

Now back to where we started. You're in need of a change but don't know where to start.

Start by paying attention to your emotions. And then ask yourself which areas of your life feel good and which feel bad. From there you can begin discovering what needs to stay, what needs improvement and what needs to go.

This article gives you a small taste of the POWER emotions bring to your life.

If you would like to read more on this subject, I recommend the book "Ask and It is Given" by Abraham-Hicks (available at Barnes and Noble and through Amazon.com) and the movie, "The Secret" (http://www.thesecret.tv). Both of these resources will explain why it's important to honor your emotions and how to do so.

Finally, if you need help sorting through your emotions because they feel too big or too out of control, seek the help of a good therapist that specializes in a method of therapy that recognizes and honors the mind, body and spirit connection. I suggest a practitioner who specializes in the Hakomi Method. To find practitioners near you search www.hakomii nstitute.com.