Have you ever sat at the beach and watched the waves – the rhythmic patterns of the swells, the ebbs and flows? I’m so blessed to live by the ocean again. I love watching the waves flowing onto the shore, drawing back to sea. It brings such a peaceful feeling.
Emotions can be like the waves. The swells, the ebbs and flows. But they don’t always feel so peaceful. Sometimes they feel really uncomfortable and scary. Like the waves, they can feel very powerful and even dangerous – especially when a storm is brewing.
But when understood and viewed and used in the right way, they are not “bad.” They can actually lead to improved health and a deeper knowing of your true self.
What are emotions?
Emotions are just a signal for you – they tell you whether something in your outer environment agrees with something that you know inside to be true – an inner truth or a deeper need or knowing of your heart.
You see, you were born into physical form from a knowing of deep unconditional love. It’s what you come from and what you’re made of. However, as the human journey would have it, we forget about this connection, and we witness the world through our human eyes, ears and perceptions. Unfortunately, a lot of what we witness is not perceived as love.
Because our original knowing is unconditional love, we expect to see it in this world. At the inner core, we know love, and we are comparing everything we see to this love. When we see things that don’t match, we feel a constriction of the heart and a discomfort – an emotion. Likewise, when we see things that do match, the heart expands and we feel a positive emotion.
Put simply – those uncomfortable emotions tell us that something on the outside does not match what’s on the inside. This is good information to have!
When you know this – and you can train your mind to be aware of this – you can allow your emotions to be a source of teaching for you. You can allow them to inform you – to highlight your own deeper needs and inner truths.
Emotions, just like all energy, have a natural motion. They move like waves of the ocean. When you try to stifle your emotions, it’s like trying to stop a wave from crashing onto the shore – it takes a lot of energy, and it can overpower you and sweep you away, or thrust you into a cathartic expression – you end up crashing right along with the wave.
If you hold your emotions back for too long, the holding itself can bring about distress in your physical body.
When do we hold back emotions?
- When we make our emotions bad, wrong or scary.
- When we get caught up in the story that stimulated the emotions.
- When we become a victim or need to be right or need to blame the one who is wrong.
- When we need to justify or seek revenge.
- Or when we feel it’s not safe to express true feelings.
These reactions stop you from receiving the deeper messages the emotions have to give you. You miss the opportunity to discover your inner truths through the witnessing of the waves.
But if you allow yourself to be the observer and allow yourself to witness the wave, or even experience the wave as you allow it to move through you – without getting swept away by the story or judgments – once the wave flows onto the shore, it is then naturally drawn back into the ocean of your heart. This ocean is an ocean of truth – of love, compassion, mercy and truth.
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing,
And invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
Because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
Embrace your life experiences. Welcome your feelings and emotions. They are signs that you are alive! You are meant to feel, express and be free.
If you need help feeling at peace with your emotions, please contact me. I can help you transform your relationship with your emotions so they become your entrance to enlightenment and not your doorway to darkness.
If emotions drive you to food, I invite you to listen to this Free Teleclass – Secrets to Break Free of Emotional Eating. Click through to receive this special gift of a complimentary Discovery Session, too.
I look forward to connecting with you.
Many blessings,
Live and Love Joyfully!!
Debra Graugnard
