Allow Your Emotions to Surface

Are you someone who suppresses your emotions and holds in what you are feeling?  Are you afraid of confrontation and therefore, do not share what it is that is bothering you?  Our society is plagued with non-expression.  Somewhere along the line we were taught that to express ourselves was wrong.  Is this true?

Being a person who is constantly seeking a higher understanding and peace, I delved into this recently.  Although I always considered myself an expressive, what I discovered that this was not really 100% true.  I discovered that there were times when I wasn’t truly being authentic with my feelings.  My reasons ranged from not wanting to confront another (fear of being belittled for my feelings) to not wanting to worry or upset another, to a fear of “losing their love” if I spoke my piece to not wanting anyone’s pity.

Oftentimes a heavy emotion can be a flashing light that something is amiss and needs our attention.  It is an indicator that there is a unbalance happening and we need to explore it further in order to restore harmony within.

Recently, something happened to me that made me very angry.  Being a person that doesn’t really get angry over much, this emotion was very foreign to me and I did not like it!  I subconsciously did everything I could to not feel this anger, although fragments of it would pop in here and there.  It was big, it was strong and it felt gross!  So one day after reading some literature on this, I decided to sink fully into this feeling.  I was alone driving in circles around my neighborhood and I let it come in full force!  I started cussing out the person who did this to me and I started to cry… I    was    angry!!!   Then something miraculous happened… it only lasted about 1-2 minutes!  I kind of just sat there looking around thinking, "So that's it?". I let the full range of my anger out, I looked it straight in the eye and it wasn’t nearly as scary as I subconsciously thought it was. 

I realized I had been holding that in for approximately 2 years!!  Now here’s the paradox.  What had been holding me back, silently festering in my soul, was brought straight up to the light and poof! it was gone! I couldn’t believe it.  I thought that if I let it come in, it would get bigger when in truth it got smaller!  Additionally, I was able to replace my anger with a deep compassion for the person.  I fully realized how he was doing the very best he could with the pain that he was carrying around.  How could I judge him when he truly knows not what he did? 

     Still a bit in awe of this process,  I checked in with myself several times in the coming weeks to see how I was feeling and the intense anger had been diminished from a 10 to a 2 (and still is).  All of that in less than 2 minutes…  Fascinating…

Please know that this does not mean it will work exactly the same way for you.  We are all at different places in our growth and healing and there are no set rules.  This story holds relevance to me in the fact that I finally “allowed the feeling in” and was astounded at how the exact opposite happened to what I had thought.

My Realization:

I realized that in order for anything to be healed it must first be brought up to the light.  That which is brought up to the light can be healed and transcended.  Feeling it “only a little bit”, does not work.  Let it out!  Look at it, feel it!  Then let it go…  It no longer serves you.

Is there any intense emotion that you are subconsciously hiding away?  Are you willing to take 5 minutes of your day to sit with it?  Let it come in full force.  Feel the full extent of it and then release it lovingly from your body.  An unattended, deep emotion will only fester.  Additionally, it will oftentimes change forms into resentment and/or self-loathing and it will only block our path to living a joyful life.                 Namaste’