Lifestyle / Spirituality
Are emotions real?
There is a misconception in the spiritual community that emotions are not real. That they belong to the part of us that is not eternal and therefore should not be given any attention. This idea can lead to the suppressing of your emotions.
If you withhold emotions you may seem calm on the outside yet you can be ‘boiling’ on the inside.
Emotions are energy
When you suppress them they get stuck within you and can become an ‘emotional pressure cooker’ that will most likely explode at some stage.You can’t keep the pressure in indefinitely and suddenly you may find yourself feeling out of balance and overreacting to insignificant situations.
Relationships are often a familiar playground for these sorts of outbursts.If you keep storing unexpressed emotions within they can become stagnant. This energy can even be stored in the physical body and leads the body to become rigid and eventually can lead to disease.
Emotions are real
They are an important part of the communication between your mind and body. Your body does not communicate with words so emotions are a non-verbal form of communication, an inner voice, pointing to how you perceive what is happening in and around you.
Although emotions are real, they are not an objective perception of reality. What does this mean? It means that two different people can be in the same situation yet experience this situation very differently from an emotional perspective. This means that to a certain degree the situation is not the cause of your emotional experience. Your inner conditioning and inner state is.
It is important to listen to and understand what is happening in your emotional structure but it is also important to understand that your emotional experience it is not necessary the only way of perceiving what is happening.
Emotions can be ‘telling you’ that you need to step up or change.
Maybe you are a peaceful loving person that avoids conflict. To keep the peace you may have developed patterns of avoidance. In interactions with your family, your partner or at work you keep ‘getting out of the way’ – maybe going along with things that you don’t want to do.
An invitation to self-inquiry
Finally your inner self says enough through the experience of anger. Your anger is telling you to make a change. It is a catalyst for your personal evolution.
Emotions such as anger can act as the protector of your boundaries.
Staying conscious
However if you get lost in an emotional outburst, you are falling into an unconscious state. You feel out of control and may say and do things you don’t find acceptable when looking back at the situation. This leaves you with a sense of regret and even more uncomfortable with your emotional nature.
We need to find a way of experiencing and understanding emotions without ‘becoming’ them.
Staying conscious with our emotions is like swimming in the ocean with your head above water. When we drop into an unconscious state it’s like we are losing perspective and control. We are pulled under and carried by the ocean of emotional energy.
So then what do we do?
Your emotional experience is an invitation to self-inquiry. They provide you with a deep insight of who you are. Are you speaking up for yourself? Do you experience a lack of self-worth or fear of not being accepted? Is there stress in your life?
When listening to your inner dialogue you can then work on these aspects of your being so that when the same situation occurs you do not get ‘pulled off’ balance. With self-knowledge you can choose to take action for change and implement strategies that will allow this to happen.
The key is to stay conscious
The key tool for learning to stay conscious is the practice of presence or mindfulness. Mindfulness allows you to experience your emotions without – necessary reacting.
Imagine that you are swimming again. When you learn to swim it is best to start in calm and controlled waters such as a pool. Once you become more proficient you can handle swimming in more unpredictable waters such as the ocean with waves and currents.
It is the same with the practice of presence. Practices such as yoga and mediation are excellent tools for changing your inner state so that mindfulness is more accessible in your everyday life.
With practice the state of mindfulness becomes more familiar and eventually becomes your natural way of being.
Mindfulness allows you to consciously fully perceive your emotional nature – so that you can become more comfortable with a wide spectrum of events without being triggered.This inner spaciousness allows you to explore new ways and opens new doors in your life. It is an invitation to evolution and to explore a life filled with freshness. Mindfulness allows your life journey to be free from the emotional conditioning of your past and the expectations of the future.
Mindfulness is your natural state of being filled with lightness, ease and grace that is experienced when you simply still your thoughts and see the world in front of you in the present moment – accepting everything exactly the way it is.
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