There are several keys that open the door to wellness, and one of them is emotional awareness. One might ask what emotions have to do with the physical? The answer is everything.
Awareness of one’s ability to feel is founded on the innate sense built into every human being’s psyche—the emotional quotient. It is expected that some have better ability to “connect the dots” than others.
Here is an exercise from “The Heart of the Soul” book by Gary Zukav and Linda Francis.
Plot your emotional map
Step 1: Retrieve a memory whether in the recent or distant past which caused you to be angry. Revisit the particular moment. Imagine the person who caused it. Recall the emotions you felt. Now this is crucial: Analyze where exactly in your body your emotions caused physical sensations.
Step 2: Think about a similar situation in which you felt the same emotions. What thoughts were running through your head?
Step 3: Repeat the exercise. Go back to the time you were a child. Can you find a connection between your childhood experiences when you felt wronged, embarrassed, left out, and your grown-up reactions to stressful situations?
If you can connect the moments, the similarities, and the sameness of the pain, then you have been successful at plotting a vast landscape—the emotions.
The primary purpose of doing this exercise is not to determine the root cause of your emotional reactions (although it helps heal them), but to allow you access into this emotional map that is exclusively yours.
The end result: an access to your emotional awareness.
Familiarity with the emotional landscape
Appreciation of your emotions to ensure that you will not be swept away by these emotions in the future. You will never be lost because you are slowly orienting yourself with your own emotional self.
Effects of denial
Every thought has a physical companion. But if you choose to ignore this basic fact by directing your focus elsewhere, then you are in denial.
By repeatedly diverting your thoughts from your emotions, you will create a compulsive behavior.
Escaping from feelings can cause you to do any of the following:
- Become a loner or antisocial
- Do drugs or alcohol
- Jump from one relationship to the next
- Start a new business
- Become a workaholic
- Eat your emotions away through food bingeing
- Become a shopaholic
- Get mesmerized by e-games and TV
Now review your life and your past deeds. Identify your compulsive behavior.
This kind of evasive action creates a prison, a fortress you have constructed to shut out your emotions.
The only way to unleash your passion is to experience joy. Both go hand in hand. As passion is joy unfolded, compassion is fear unfolded. And it is by recognizing the difference between the two that true liberation begins.
How to stop a compulsion
Just stop doing whatever compulsive acts you are doing from day to day.
When you are feeling an emotion, keep still for two minutes. Think about what you are feeling. Process it.
So, whether it’s rage, jealousy, hatred or greed—just go through it and not away from it. Feel it. Think of it. Accept it. Understand it.
If you do not look within or inside, then you will always be affected by circumstances outside. Without developing awareness of your emotions, you cannot be aware of the now. And by becoming aware of yourself today—with all its challenges and experiences— you unleash the power of the present.
This week’s affirmation: “Today, I claim my power.”
Love and light!
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