What’s happening right now in our world is bringing up a lot of emotions for so many of us. Unfortunately, though, many of us have spent much of our lives being taught our emotions are wrong, resisting them and believing that feeling our feelings hurts.
But, what if this isn’t true?
What if, instead of this old paradigm, we were taught that feeling our feelings is the way out of our pain, instead of causing more of it?
With this, what if we were raised believing that feeling our feelings is one of the biggest keys to a rich, deep life and that we can only allow in as much joy as we allow sadness, anger, or hurt, for example? As part of this, what if we knew limiting our range of feelings limited our life?
And, what if we were not only taught this, but we were given the tools to actually be able to feel our feelings in real time? What if this was normal, and maybe even at some point felt good, as, when we had a feeling different from happiness, it gave us permission to feel safe with ourselves, instead of us being too emotional or too much (and even deeper, a fear of not being loved)?
What if, as well, we knew that storing our emotions in our body, and not feeling them, not only led to disease and dis-ease, but actually attracted the exact situations (and emotions) we were resisting and in general, made us feel bad?
What would life be like? How would our actions, and really, our relationship with our emotions, change?
So let me propose something different:
That our emotions are the way out of our pain and into our hearts.
Does a part of this feel true for you? At times, when you’ve felt your feelings, and your pain, have you had some relief with it? Maybe you’ve even noticed a shift?
If this is speaking to you, or, on the flip side, you’ve done many of the things that have been recommended to you, things like therapy, journaling, meditation and breathwork, and yet, you’re still struggling, this can be the missing piece.
So, how do we do this?
Start with anger.
Anger is usually the cover-up for sadness, hurt, grief and pain, to name a few. So, many times, when we go to feel these, if we haven’t felt the anger first, it will feel blocked and impossible to feel what’s underneath it.
One of my favorite ways to feel anger is to punch, kick and scream. Damn, it can feel good. Thankfully, I live in an apartment with high ceilings. 🙂
With this, understand that feeling this may not be a one-and-done thing. You might have to come back to it over and over until one day you find yourself feeling what’s underneath it.
And, once you do, and get a taste of the liberation you’re likely to experience from this release, you won’t ever turn back.
Your emotions will be your guide and the key to more in your life. And that, my friends, was always the point anyways.