I had a similar observation years ago while at a meditation retreat. I noticed that the order of causation was different than I thought when it came to emotions. I had believed that thoughts were causing emotions, and sometimes they do, but I also noticed that sometimes emotions were just arising randomly. Then within a split second my mind was assigning some reason for that emotion, a thought, and then the thought began to amplify the emotion. But if I stopped it at the moment of awareness of the emotion, and recognized the emotion as having no cause, it simply dissipated, passing on into the next emotion. Ever since then I've been very aware of when emotion is causing thought vs thought causing emotion, and have had a much easier time choosing my emotions at will.
On Jul 7, 2015 Indigo Ocean wrote on Money is a Lot Like Water, by Lynne Twist:
I am in such deep agreement with this. I like to think of it as a village in which we all get to contribute what we are good at and receive what we need from what others are good at, whether creating goods or sharing services. Money is meant to be a convenient transactional system for that exchange. But the problem with money is that you can horde it in a way you can't horde apples.
You know those apples are no good to you if you don't go ahead and exchange them, because they have a shelf life. And though depreciation can chip away at the value of money over time, it doesn't "decay" nearly as quickly as say apples. And the fear of depreciation actually drives even wealthy people to horde even more, among other problem behaviors born of a distorted relationship with money.
Similarly, those who could do so much more good in the world, including adding one more happy, relaxed person (themselves) instead fight an inner battle with money, and so cut themselves off from the flow of abundance that would empower their dreams and help them deliver their gifts.
The convenience of money has confused everyone. It has created too great a distance between what is contributed and what is received for people to see the relationship. The village doesn't understand it is a village anymore, one in which all are needed, valued, able to make a contribution, and worthy of security in every sense of the word. So let's keep reminding each other -- and creating systems that make this connection explicit.