This quote by Rob Preach deeply affects me:
“If we learn to listen to that quarter of our emotions, we can know what’s important to us and make choices that align with our own truth.”
We all carry far more emotions within us than we realize. Some are things we love, some are things we wish to stay away from, and some are complex feelings we can't quite understand. And these emotions aren't static—they change, flow, transform. Sometimes they grow, sometimes they wait silently within us.
But most of the time we don't even hear them.
Emotion lasts 90 seconds. A story lasts a lifetime.
Neuroscience tells us something striking: the biological lifespan of an emotion is only 90 seconds. The body reacts, the chemical process begins and completes.
But we carry these feelings for years, sometimes a lifetime.
From where?
Because the emotion passes, but the story remains. Our bodies calm down, but the mind reproduces that emotion again and again. An old belief, an old wound, an old voice kicks in — and we live not in the present, but in that old record.
This is where the following question becomes important:
Does this feeling truly belong to me? Does it reflect the reality of today, or is it the voice of the past?
What is a quarter tone?
The quarter voice isn't the loud, screaming part of emotion. That part makes itself heard already — anger, fear, collapse.
A quarter tone is the subtle whisper beneath all of them.
It's the sound we hear when we calm down, when we pause for a moment, when we create a non-judgmental space. It's the voice that carries the true answer to the question, "Why does this affect me so much?"
Often, what guides us isn't the feeling itself, but a belief formed years ago. A schema. A core voice. And that voice is so familiar...
But we aren't.
We can only hear what our feelings are telling us when we create a silent, non-judgmental space.
You might ask yourself this question:
- Does this feeling truly belong to the present moment?
- Is it a feeling guiding me, or an old belief?
- If I could stay with this feeling a little longer, what would I feel?
The answers may not come immediately. But something changes when the question is posed. A quarter of a second thought begins to emerge.
And when that voice is heard, what Rob Preach said comes true: We know what truly matters to us. We can make choices that align with our own truth.
With Peace and Love
Sibel Kavunoğlu
