Accepting the Emotional Waves

What happens when we’re willing to feel bad is that, sure enough, we often feel bad - but without the stress of futile avoidance. Emotional discomfort, when accepted, rises, crests and falls in a series of waves. Each wave washes parts of us away and deposits treasures we never imagined.

- Martha Beck

I used to have the habit of covering up my emotions, numbing myself with food, television, alcohol, drugs or busy-ness.

It’s not always fun to actually feel your feelings, and society has trained us not to. It can be really uncomfortable. But ignoring and pushing them down only leads to dis-connection and dis-ease.

Acceptance, on the other hand, is a powerful tool for riding these emotional waves.

Today, I am feeling fear, doubt, uncertainty and anxiety as I navigate my first week outside of the corporate world. So, instead of turning on Netflix or busying myself cleaning the house, I am accepting the feelings and allowing them to wash over me.

As humans, we are meant to feel these emotions, and if we don’t feel them now, they will rear their ugly heads at some time in the future in even bigger and more challenging ways.

PSYCH-K® has been an invaluable tool for me to find the message or the lesson in the emotion and to let it go. This along with yoga helps me return to my center and recognize that I am separate from my emotions, that I can be a calm observer of them as each emotional wave rolls in and then out again.

How are you feeling today? I encourage you to sit and really think about it. Be with whatever emotions you are feeling, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Create a little space to become aware of and acknowledge the feeling before you rush off to the next thing or turn to a numbing habit.

What is that feeling telling you? Is there a situation or issue that needs to be dealt with or a lesson to be learned? Look for the treasure within the discomfort.