An emotional hijacking occurs when we find that our joy is being controlled by others.
Beware of Potential Emotional Hijacks
My number one tip for today and every day is to, “Get prayed up!” BEFORE you face your day because you never know what life will greet you with. Some days are just perfect and everyone makes joyful positive deposits into your emotional account. Other days, it’s like an unrelenting torrential downpour of other people’s distracting, destructive, or draining energy. Each of us has some of our own internal negative chatter going on and that’s natural. But, when our own fears, worries, and doubts intertwine with the barrage of negative input and sorrow that’s everywhere, an emotional hijacking can occur quickly. The problem is that when this happens we are no longer in full control. We lose much of our power, perspective, and feeling of self-control temporarily much to our own detriment. Emotional control is critical if we are to make the most of our days and the most out of our lives.
I’m a motivator by choice, chance, and career. And, even I find it hard to maintain that joyful inspiring energy some days. But in everything there is a lesson to be learned and I am determined to learn it and to share it. I’ve been pondering lately the amount of energy it takes to keep myself and others motivated especially during the trying times that so many people are experiencing. We can’t bottle joy and drink it when we need it, but we can find in on our knees (in silence) and in exciting goals and purposeful work.
And, That’s What We Call Life.
Life presents us daily with new lessons. We can’t control the tests and difficulties, but we do chose the lab in which to learn the lessons that we were each put here to learn. It may be through our jobs, our relationships, or other pursuits. Our ultimate job, journey, and mission is to do what we must to stay our own course despite what occurs around us. Things will always occur and distract and drain our power if we let them. At the same time, there are ALWAYS positive empowering people, messages, and energy all around. We just need to recognize when it is happening and learn how to redirect our focus more quickly on input that fuels us and makes us stronger! Truly what we focus on multiplies in our lives, so we must be careful to keep our own emotional tank full. This is even more critical when we are the one that people tend to call on when their emotional tanks are low or empty.
G+E+T
I share my personal formula for success often. G+E+T! And today I had to remind myself of it. Yes, it’s a given that we must goals (G) and time (T) to achieve those goals, but equally important and perhaps more important is the E (emotional energy) that jump starts us into action and keeps us moving in the direction we choose. Prayer, meditation, sunlight, empowering people and messages, and joy and laughter fuel me and keep my emotional tank full. Negativity, complaining, stressful competitiveness, judgmental people, injustice, insensitivity, selfishness, and unkindness drain me. You and I have to recognize what fills our tanks and that which drains it, so that we do not run out of energy in this journey we call life.
Emotions get us INTO motion and KEEP us in motion. They even have the power to thwart our intended motion and render us impotent or in a state of lethargy. We are always in motion, either going towards that which we want or drifting or remaining stuck with that which we don’t want). And, be clear, we do it both in our minds and bodies. In conclusion, just remember that you are in charge and do what you must to keep your emotional tank full so that you have the energy you need when you need it to help yourself and others! Emotional hijacking affect us must less when our tanks are full, so “get prayed up” and “stay “prayed up!”
Barbara
ESPN Commenter Parker made the remark that Robert Griffin (RGIII) wasn’t black enough and the Stuff#*@ hit the fan. As a celebrity, he’s now a proud member of the “Black, but Not Black Enough Club” joining the likes of POTUS Obama, Tiger Woods, Clarence Thomas, and OJ Simpson. Comments flew from outraged people from both sides of the fence; some were agitated that ESPN would censor the black commenter from speaking his mind and others incensed that we’re still talking race in 2012. Robert Parker called out Griffin on the air, asking: ”Is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother?” Some of Parker’s rationale for calling RGIII “NOT black enough” was his engagement to a white woman, talk of him being a Republican, and that he was “not real.” One African-American person commenting on the ordeal on 
So, just what does it mean to not be “black enough?” While it was the most recent controversy between two high profile black men in sports that brings this question to the forefront, the questions of race and identity and what it means to be black have never been sufficiently addressed. First of all, I’m not into sports, so the fact that RGIII is a celebrity, makes little difference to me. But the race and identity discussion does catch my attention, since I am African-American, I work in Diversity, and this question unfortunately hits too close to home. As a mother, I’ve been dealing with this issue on behalf of my children for decades unabated. My fifteen year old daughter was outraged just a few months ago when she experienced this in her “magnet school” that lacks much diversity. A kid at her school told her she wasn’t black like the kids at a different school. I too faced this same challenge as a child when my father took us from the north to the south while doing migrant work. My sisters and I were often mocked and ridiculed by the other kids who said, “We talked proper.” It didn’t stop there, many times in my career have I heard the ignorant comment, “You’re different!” What’s that supposed to mean? Although it was usually meant as a compliment, it left me with the same distaste as it did as a child. I interpreted that comment as:”I’ve got this definition of what it is to be black, and you don’t fit it!” Rather than the person admitting that perhaps their definition of blackness was flawed, instead I was the anomaly. “I was different!” So I got it from both sides, both black and white.
I want to bring your attention to three recent tragedies that seem to have three things in common, their race, age, and gender. They were all young, African-American males, who were attacked because of their race. Most recently seventeen year old, 
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