I sort of get the first interpretation, but it doesn't match with where the second interpretation is taking us.

Your Higher Self automatically expands in the moment of the launching of a new desire to hold the vibrational frequency of what you are desiring. Your Physical Self only touches that frequency in the exact moment of the launching but your Higher Self then remains in that frequency (newly-expanded) to "light the way" for your Physical Self to return there.

Therefore when you give your attention to something that you want, the degree of alignment (or not) with Higher Self means the same thing as the degree of alignment (or not) with your desire.

See Is reality-creation mostly about making ourselves feel better?

If my sole purpose in this physical life is to provide a vehicle to my higher self to experience through me, why do I care if I feel good or bad? How does it matter anyway? All experience is experience for my higher self. Me feeling bad is also an experience for it.

From your physical perspective, you can live a joyous life or you can live a wretched miserable life and both lives are equally "valid" from the Higher/Broader Perspective because of the experiences you gained along the way.

All choices are valid. Nothing wrong with living a miserable life. Many people around the world do so because they believe that's just the way life is - but I doubt that many of them would consciously choose to live a miserable life if they knew how easy it was to live a happy life instead. Would you? :)

If the higher self feels the need to tell me - through my emotions - that it doesn't want me to think certain things, then it follows that my higher self is judging

All that your Higher Self is doing is holding to the vibrational frequency that was reached in the moment of the launching of a new desire....Your desire. It's as though it's lighting a candle in the darkness to show you which way to go to reach your destination.

As you get closer to your desire (indicated by the candle), you naturally see the candle getting brighter and hotter ("emotions feel more positive").

As you get further away from your desire (indicated by the candle), you naturally see the candle getting dimmer and cooler ("emotions feel more negative"). Negative emotion is just absence of Higher Self "flowing" through you because you are further away from the vibrational frequency of it. Negative emotions have no existence in themselves...in the same way that darkness is just the absence of light, not a thing in itself.

Higher Self has no judgement at all about how you want to live your physical life. It's merely sticking to its agreement that it will point out the (vibrational) direction for you ("light the candle") to get to what you have decided you want.

If you decide you want something else, it will point that direction out to you also. If you decide you want something else than that, it will do the same, and the same, and the same....forever...unquestioningly...no judgement involved anywhere.

I don't know where you've picked up the "it doesn't want me to think certain things" phrase from.

All experiences are valid, always...you have the freewill to make your physical life as painful as you like :)

I won't address your third interpretation since it becomes obsolete in light of the above explanations.

Just as a final (unrelated) point, I don't think it helps you to address questions directly to me. It cuts off others from answering who would probably provide valuable information to you. And it kind of implies that no-one else, apart from me, has the answers...I can assure you that many people around these parts definitely do have answers that would help you even if they haven't got as big an online mouth as I have :)

If you truly believe that only certain sources of information are worth considering, you're well on the way to starting a new religion...and that's a game you'll have to play without my participation :) It might seem at times like I am the master-manifester/evil-ruler (take your pick) of the Universe but I'm not. I learned much of what I know by keeping open-minded to information from all sources and I continue to learn from many varied sources.

A wise (non-physical) being told me many years ago that All Knowledge Is Of Worth and that's a principle that has served me well time and time again.