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Emotions Got A Good Shaking Out
November 26, 2011 / / Comments Off on Emotions Got A Good Shaking Out
There is nothing better than moving to a foreign country to generate emotional overload and let’s make it a country that is very different than your own. Â In some ways, it felt like my emotions got a good shaking out, so that the extremes could emerge: Â children begging for money and giving magic shows with the eyes of an aged person, animals underweight and riddled with varying health issues, historic buildings that are artful and breathtaking in their opulent details, savory dishes with spice combinations that are new and delightful…. Â When emotions aren’t getting the best of us, they are part of the fun of the human experience on Earth’s playground. Â But we all know that when they are sending us in the “glass is half empty” zone it can be challenging to change course. Â We always have something to be grateful for, but we might have to look a little bit harder when life is challenging us.
The author of the following article has created a thoughtfully crafted writing that helps us find a course of action with our emotional path.
Does Suppressing Our Emotions Cause Dis-ease?
By Lynn Zavaro
In 1984 Louise L. Hay wrote a small little book called “You Can Heal Your Life.†Since that day over 35 million copies have been sold around the world and she owns what is now the biggest publishing company in the self-help movement. Louise’s principles were simple, yet groundbreaking: We create every so-called “illness†in our body.
The movement has taken it even further to suggest that suppressed feelings can cause dis-ease on all levels of consciousness – mental, emotional, spiritual and physical – and many scientific research studies have proven stress, including stress from emotional suppression, can correlate to causing disease.
Stripped of any new-age philosophy, what I believe matters most is that we are responsible for our emotional experiences, how we hold them, our view of them and how we choose to carry them to balance and stabilize our overall health. With loving self-support, we realize that the issues we have are not nearly as important as how we relate to them.
Feelings that are kept stuck deep down inside can harden our hearts, break our spirits and keep us stuck in patterns of imbalance and unease. So what do we do when a strong feeling arises? How can we create a loving container for a healthy release?
It takes great trust to explore what we feel inside. To let go and dive into the water of our emotions can be scary and feel unsafe at times. So many of us have learned that feeling our feelings is dangerous or wrong and we are taught to suppress them. There is opportunity to perceive feelings not as something bad or something to fear but as sensations ready to be released.
Let’s face it: When we have a healthy release of our emotions, contained and lovingly supported, we feel lighter, happier, healthier and freer.
It is important and necessary as we go through our day-to-day to empty our reserves. When our inner cup is full, we have opportunity to lovingly “pour out.†Now we can be at ease!
Here are eight tools to find a healthy release when feelings arise in order to create inner balance and ease:
1.) Explore your feelings. Kindly and easily, give yourself permission to feel whatever it is that you feel. Take a moment to tap into your inner experience and ask yourself, “What is it that I am feeling right now?†After identifying the feeling, ask yourself, “What color is the feeling? What is the texture? Where is it located in my body?†Rather than attach the feeling to a thought form, watch it move and dissipate with ease.
2.) Accept feelings. Write, “I feel ________†and fill in the blank, continuing until you feel complete. Then ask yourself if you are willing to accept the feelings as they are. Moving into deeper levels of acceptance is a huge step of creating loving ease.
3.) Communicate feelings. Give your feelings a voice by locating the primary feeling you are in touch with. With a pen and paper, have a dialogue with the feeling. Ask the feeling, “Tell me how you are feeling?†(i.e. grief). Continue to ask the feeling open-ended questions until you sense the feeling has completed expressing what it needs to say.
4.) Go within. It is not indulgent or selfish to take time off for ourselves, but necessary to restore and empty out. To “go within,†create some space, time and quiet to bring awareness to your inner experience. Meditation is always a profound way to offer space in the heart for feelings to rise and dissipate and is proven to decrease stress tremendously.
5.) Heal past pain. If you are holding a painful memory that is ready to be healed, write out the memory in detail. Ask yourself, “What can I learn from this memory right now?†And then, “What blessing is in this experience?†Remember to relate with yourself in a loving and caring way as you explore the answer to these questions.
6.) Forgive. Forgiveness is about tying up loose ends from our past that keep us from what is needed to be at peace in the present moment. Without forgiveness we can harbor resentments that solidify our heart and cause dis-ease. Be lovingly honest as you bring awareness to any harm made against others and/or yourself. Then invoke the feelings of love, forgiveness and compassion. When in tune with your loving, feel yourself balanced and at peace, emptied of something you may have carried for a long time.
7.) Relax and enjoy. Rather than get caught up in your emotional experience, put your attention on relaxing and enjoying the simple things that daily life offers. It is entirely possible to go about your day calm, content and happy if you make this your focus. Life can be easy if you choose ease!
8.) Gratitude. Gratitude represents the appreciative joy we feel when we recognize all the plenty we have in our lives and how much we have received. It takes the attention off of suffering and puts us immediately into our hearts. Write out 25 things you are grateful for right now in this moment without stopping your pen. Taking in each moment of gratitude will certainly bring immediate joy and ease!
These are only a few suggestions for how to handle emotions as they arise. The key is to create relaxation and ease as you allow feelings to gently come and go as well as know deep inside that feelings, like everything else in life, are impermanent.
How might you create more relaxation and ease for yourself to have an overall sense of well-being?