Feeling Feelings Frees Feelings
When it comes to emotions don’t skirt in the shallows;
dive in deep, get wet, let their currents be fully felt.
Feelings are the energetic conductors of meaning and mattering that create your reality; they are the substance of life, and gateways to your connection with anything and to freedom, healing, and wholeness.
There can be resistance to self-intimacy, alone time, quiet, stillness and meditation if on some level you are avoiding uncomfortable, painful or unwanted feelings. You might not be aware you are avoiding those feelings within, which could be just under the surface, or more buried. A part of you knows, however, that in getting present and connecting with yourself more closely that ‘stuff’ may surface.
Shutting down your feelings cuts you off from yourself, plus numbness isn’t selective. Shut down to block out negative feelings and you can block out positive ones too.
I remember first consciously processing my feelings when I was 16 years old. I realized that I had anger stored (triggered by an experience with my boyfriend) that I hadn’t previously acknowledged nor given myself permission to feel. I knew I had pain, and I felt worthlessness, guilt, fear and shame, but anger I wasn’t so conscious of. It was seen as a ‘no no’ in my family, so anger got repressed. With the help of a guided meditation I went on a journey within to meet and feel my inner rage. I allowed my rage to curse through me. I yelled and wailed. Layers of emotions came to the surface. Underneath my rage there were feelings of pain and utter valuelessness. After excavating these darker spaces within me through feeling them, I then began to open to the most beautiful love that flooded me on all levels. It was an incredibly healing experience. Meeting my darkness allowed light and love to join those places. I revisited that valuelessness many times through experiences in my life.
Give yourself permission and compassionate space to connect with yourself, accept yourself, acknowledge what’s going on within and feel your feelings without judgement. What you accept you more easily let go of and release, it’s what you resist that persists, and judgement only compounds what it judges.
You offer an emotionally safe space when you come from a non-judgemental place.
Throughout day-to-day life you may carry, stuff down, tuck away and build up layers of emotions without realizing it. You can develop the practice of acknowledging and releasing those feelings more consciously in your own time. Mindfulness is one way of doing so by dedicating time to being fully present with yourself, such as in meditation. This can allow you to release emotions in a general cathartic sense, and not just when triggered.
When emotions are sparked through being triggered, rather than react to what is triggering you, observe, feel, process, reflect and release. That doesn’t mean avoiding responding, communicating and expressing yourself, it si more about being responsible about responding versus reacting, and being clear about which ‘you’ is responding.
Anytime you feel an impulse to react or defend, rest in your love and loveability instead.
Process emotions when they arise and let them be felt. If you’re in touch with whatever emotions are there, immerse yourself in the experience, dive in and let that experience be whatever it is, free, spontaneous and unencumbered (unless it involves another, in which case don’t irresponsibly ‘dump’ negative emotions onto them and be mindful of your impact).
Avoiding, repressing or numbing your feelings doesn’t make them disappear. You may get a sense of temporary relief in the moment, but those feelings can get buried and show up in different ways in your being and life. They can fester, become toxic, leak out sideways, erupt, cause health imbalances, and so on.
It is understandable to want to avoid unpleasant emotions. You wouldn’t consciously put your hand in a fire if you knew it was going to hurt. You might resist feeling hurt and pain that’s within you too. Feeling feelings frees feelings, however.
Coping mechanisms may be used as a part of dealing with pain, trauma, and distress. They can help you quite literally survive when experiences are overwhelming. Coping mechanisms of any nature, and by their very nature, can be addictive, however. Many coping mechanisms are addictions. When a coping mechanism is no longer needed, it may continue nonetheless and become unhealthy and destructive.
When it comes to emotions don’t skirt in the shallows; dive in deep, get wet, let their currents be fully felt.
Feelings are the energetic conductors of meaning and mattering that create your reality; they are the substance of life, and gateways to your connection with anything and to freedom, healing, and wholeness. There can be an unvoiced stigma that exists around ‘negative emotions’ which can lead to avoiding, judging, repressing, or denying them.
There can be resistance to self-intimacy, alone time, quiet, stillness and meditation if on some level you are avoiding uncomfortable, painful or unwanted feelings. You might not be aware you are avoiding those feelings within, which could be just under the surface, or more buried. A part of you knows, however, that in getting present and connecting with yourself more closely that ‘stuff’ may surface.
Shutting down your feelings cuts you off from yourself, plus numbness isn’t selective. Shut down to block out negative feelings and you can block out positive ones too.
I remember first consciously processing my feelings when I was 16 years old. I realized that I had anger stored (triggered by an experience with my boyfriend) that I hadn’t previously acknowledged nor given myself permission to feel. I knew I had pain, and I felt worthlessness, guilt, fear and shame, but anger I wasn’t so conscious of. It was seen as a ‘no no’ in my family, so anger got repressed. With the help of a guided meditation I went on a journey within to meet and feel my inner rage. I allowed my rage to curse through me. I yelled and wailed. Layers of emotions came to the surface. Underneath my rage there were feelings of pain and utter valuelessness. After excavating these darker spaces within me through feeling them, I then began to open to the most beautiful love that flooded me on all levels. It was an incredibly healing experience. Meeting my darkness allowed light and love to join those places. I revisited that valuelessness many times through experiences in my life until it was healed.
Give yourself permission and compassionate space to connect with yourself, accept yourself, acknowledge what’s going on within and feel your feelings without judgement. What you accept you more easily let go of and release, it’s what you resist that persists, and judgement only compounds what it judges.
You offer an emotionally safe space when you come from a non-judgemental place.
Throughout day-to-day life you may carry, stuff down, tuck away and build up layers of emotions without realizing it. You can develop the practice of acknowledging and releasing those feelings more consciously in your own time. Mindfulness is one way of doing so by dedicating time to being fully present with yourself, such as in meditation. This can allow you to release emotions in a general cathartic sense, and not just when triggered.
When emotions are sparked through being triggered, rather than react to what is triggering you, observe, feel, process, reflect and release. That doesn’t mean avoiding responding, communicating and expressing yourself, it si more about being responsible about responding versus reacting, and being clear about which ‘you’ is responding.
Anytime you feel an impulse to react or defend, rest in your love and loveability instead.
Process emotions when they arise and let them be felt. If you’re in touch with whatever emotions are there, immerse yourself in the experience, dive in and let that experience be whatever it is, free, spontaneous and unencumbered (unless it involves another, in which case don’t irresponsibly ‘dump’ negative emotions onto them and be mindful of your impact).
Avoiding, repressing or numbing your feelings doesn’t make them disappear. You may get a sense of temporary relief in the moment, but those feelings can get buried and show up in different ways in your being and life. They can fester, become toxic, leak out sideways, erupt, cause health imbalances, and so on.
It is understandable to want to avoid unpleasant emotions. You wouldn’t consciously put your hand in a fire if you knew it was going to hurt. You might resist feeling hurt and pain that’s within you too. Feeling feelings frees feelings, however.
Feeling feelings frees feelings, is always healing,
and creates the space for more love and other frequencies.
Coping mechanisms may be used as a part of dealing with pain, trauma, and distress. They can help you quite literally survive when experiences are overwhelming. Coping mechanisms of any nature, and by their very nature, can be addictive, however. Many coping mechanisms are addictions. When a coping mechanism is no longer needed, it may continue nonetheless and become unhealthy and destructive.
Repression and coping mechanisms can be akin to band-aids protecting a wound. When a wound is allowed to breathe by feeling it, it can have an opportunity to heal. There can be stages and layers with feelings, such as with grief. Traumatic events can also include a period of shock and with that a numbness. Feeling feelings isn’t about forcing yourself to feel them, but being accepting of and open to them wherever they and you are.
Your beliefs, thoughts and feelings are all interrelated. In this sense your feelings are teachers; you can learn from them about what’s going on inside (though don’t let any reflections of an analytical kind get in the way of allowing them to be felt in the moment).
I’m sure you’ve noticed times when realizations, changes in thoughts, perspective and epiphanies shift and release feelings. Ever had a change in perspective and corresponding change in how you feel about something?
Feelings don’t need to make sense to be felt, and attempting to make sense of them can get in the way of processing them. Reflecting on and learning from your emotions about what’s going on inside can be valuable, but it may help to leave reflections to after processing them if doing so would take you out of the feeling experience. You may never know consciously why you feel X/Y/Z. Your emotions exist, period. Accepting them allows them to do what they’re designed to do – move. When you free them, you free you.
Processing your feelings isn’t the same as indulging in them. You may get stuck or caught up in certain emotions or even harbour them, or you may use certain feelings to avoid others, or to avoid some truth your ego may be resisting, or a situation or story you are attached to and keeping alive through those feelings, for example. Don’t judge yourself either way. If you keep looping around the same type of emotion and have trouble letting it go, ask yourself whether there is a pay-off attached to that particular emotion and the story it is connected with. Do you get to be a victim/to be right/to be blaming/to be held back/to not take action…?
I have been referencing negative emotions here as there can be more resistance to processing them. Obviously, allow yourself to fully feel, relish in and harness, your positive feelings! Though less acknowledged, there can be resistance to doing so with them also. Give yourself permission to allow and immerse yourself in beautiful uplifting emotions. Let them expand through you and bless your being and life. Your emotions are energetic reality creators. Engage them for aligning to your heart’s desires and manifesting the outcomes you seek.
Honour your feelings by feeling them without judgement and letting them be, doing so allows them to move and be free, and you can harness and transmute them through creativity, and ignite, create and engage them through heart, mind, spirit, and body.