Human emotions.

Boy can they knock us about!

Whether it’s something meaningless or something catastrophic that happens in our life, the resulting emotions that kick in, have the ability to completely unhinge us.

Yet we are human.

And part of being human is experiencing our very real human emotions.

It’s these human emotions that essentially guide us through life.

Yes, our human emotions have a purpose.

They let us know when we need to enact change.

What I’m saying, is that when we’re willing to feel our emotions, they become catalysts for change.

Take anger for example.

A lot of people believe that it’s bad to experience emotions such as anger. 

Anger, however, serves a very important function.

Anger lets us know that we’re feeling powerless. 

Maybe you’ve allowed your boundaries to be overstepped, maybe you’re allowing a situation to play out that isn’t in your best interests, or maybe you’re not acting in a way that’s helpful for all involved.

As a result, anger kicks in.

If we understand that the anger is trying to alert us to something, then we can realise that anger itself isn’t bad, it’s what we do with that anger, that has the potential to make it problematic.

If for example, you react to the anger by blaming others or arguing, this serves no-one.

It only creates more mess, more heart-ache, and more inaction.

For example, there’s a lot of anger and frustration around what’s happening concerning the devastating fires in Australia right now.

Instead of pointing the finger, and indulging in the anger, what if people turned their anger into action?

Positive action.

Like I said, anger is the bi-product of feeling powerless.

Staying angry doesn’t make you feel powerful, it just breeds anger.

The antidote to anger is finding a way to feel powerful in the situation that triggered the anger.

Perhaps that involves speaking up, or removing yourself from a negative situation, or changing jobs!

Maybe, in the case of the fires, it’s about finding a way you can help.

A way you can help enact change.

It’s very easy to think that you can’t do anything about the situation at hand, but there is ALWAYS something you can do.

But you wont see the solution – or the way you can create change – if you’re stuck in the emotion.

And that’s because:

When emotion increases, intelligence decreases.

If we believe we have no power over our emotions, or if we believe are are our emotions, then we become engulfed by them.

They override any rational thinking, and cloud out the intuitive guidance fo the heart.

The thing to understand is that while we are here to experience our human emotions, are are NOT our emotions.

They cannot harm us.

The only harm that can come from emotions, is how we react to them.

Our human emotions are here to serve us.

To communicate important information to us, so we can make the necessary changes or actions for the greater good of all.

How do you listen to your emotions?

Instead of shoving your emotions down, denying them or taking them out on another person or group (which may be very tempting at the time)…

… sit with them.

Yes, sit with your emotions.

Accept the emotion, without judgement. 

Be with it. 

When you give yourself full permission to feel the emotion that’s arisen, you give voice to it.

You give it the time and space to communicate to you.

Then all you need to do is listen.

Listen to the emotion, as you would a wise friend.

If it’s anger, that you’re listening to, ask yourself: 

What can I do right now to I feel empowered?

If you’re open to sitting with the emotion, you’ll be shown ways on how you can use your energy for good.

How you can take action or make changes that will serve you, and all involved.

The more we practise sitting with our emotions, the more we can use our emotion as a facilitator of change.

Sure, it may feel uncomfortable to begin with, if you’re not practised at sitting with your emotions.

This is why most people run from their emotions. 

They shove them down, refusing to feel them.

Refusing to listen to them.

Instead, they fill their life with distractions such as alcohol, television, being busy… all so they don’t have to be with their emotions.

And they use these coping mechanisms to essentially numb them; so them don’t have to feel.

The problem is, what we shove down, becomes stuck energy in the body.

Emotion = Energy in motion.

If the emotion isn’t felt in the present moment, it creates tension and cellular degeneration in the body.

For example, when I help a person clear stuck emotion in the body – which is part of the work we do in the One-on-One Intensive – if that person is experiencing illness or disease, often this technique alone, is enough to shift the body into a state of healing.

And this is because when we don’t feel our emotions, they get stuck in the body. 

Just think of a beach ball that’s pushed under the water.

Eventually it’s gotta come up… with a splash!

It’s the same with our emotions.

And the way our emotions resurface is either through bodily deterioration OR through taking our past emotions out on the people around us.

Yet, as soon as you’re willing to be with the emotion.

Sit with it.

Listen to it.

As soon as you surrender to the process of listening, the emotion will lift.

Just like a child whose pulling on your pants, they simply want to be heard.

Give them your attention, and they’ll stop tugging!

Once you’re willing to hear the emotion, its job is done, and it will leave.

And you’ll be left knowing what you need to do, to enact the change the emotion was trying to instigate.

To avoid experiencing our human emotions it to deny our humaness.

Emotions come as part of the human package.

It’s when we identify with them, make them something they’re not – such as thinking they are who we are – that we run into trouble.

Avoiding our emotions creates suffering.

For what we resist, persists.

In order for heal, we must feel.

When we are willing to sit and feel the emotion – be with the emotion – this gives us information.

We become acutely aware of why that emotion kicked in.

And once we have that kind of awareness, we are able to take action, based on that clarity (as opposed to simply reacting to how we feel, without knowing what it’s truely about).

In the case of anger, we can look at the anger and see it as an invitation to make changes in our life so we feel more powerful.

It is our human emotions that allow us to live a rich life.

A life where we are guided on how to be better and how to serve better.

Without emotions where would our guidance come from?

How would we know what needed to change, to create more joy in our life?

Being human involves experiencing ups and downs, and the various emotions that come with that.

It’s our emotions that make our life rich and colourful.

Emotions really are our fuel.

Emotions propel us forward in life, if we’re willing to listen to them, as opposed to run from them.

I invite you now to ponder these questions, or perhaps journal or meditate on them:

• How do I feel about my emotions?
• Do they make me feel uncomfortable?
• Do I feel emotions make life just that little bit more complicated?
• What would I need to let go of, to be willing to embrace my emotions?
• To make time to feel my emotions?

As the fires in Australia burn out of control, I invite you to stop letting your internal emotions burn out of control.

Sit with them.

Listen to them.

And let those emotions guide you on how you can help yourself, help the people around you, and help the planet as a whole.

It takes many people doing simple, seemingly small gestures, to make HUGE difference.

Mother earth needs your help more than anything right now.

If you’d like to donate to help those experiencing the Australian fires, click here for some ways to do so.