Sitting in our psyche while bringing awareness to our own thoughts and emotions, can be liberating as well as debilitating. Being with ourselves can bring about waves of inner peace and discord, depending upon what we decide to tap into. When we feel emotions like gratitude, happiness, and passion, we welcome them at the door to our cognizance. We say come on in, mi casa es su casa. Those feelings then make themselves at home. Our mind revels in the now! Conversely, when our thoughts are consumed by emotions like fear, worry, sadness, and shame, our power to be present is often robbed from us. This is because we’re so concerned about feelings from the past or what we’ll experience in the future, that we don’t allow our current emotions to be fully felt.
When we encounter the tougher emotions, we can either surrender to them or resist them. We engage in fight or flight. For those who resist, the almost innate response is to dodge the feeling as soon as possible. Rather than fighting through and coming to terms with it, the flight response devours them. Rather than welcoming these emotions, they are avoided and escaped through coping mechanisms like suppression and compartmentalization. Essentially these feelings are being shoved into a box labeled DO NOT OPEN, wrapped in caution tape, and tucked away into a dark inaccessible corner of the mind. It rests until something comes along and triggers them to resurface. When these feelings reenter, the mind goes into defense mode. It signals to us that the security of the hidden box has been breached. The mind asks: What do we do now?! Should I unpack the box or tighten up the defenses? Should I revisit what’s concealed or buy some padlocks?
Although it seems easiest to continue pushing that box aside, I urge you to open it and endure your inner turmoil. You would much rather deal with the short-term pain than letting it linger. The more you resist it, the bigger that box becomes. As you tow that box with you throughout life, it has more opportunities to appear and leak its contents. It will always be there until you accept it. Let the feelings consume you so that you can listen to their message; clear out the box, so that you can stop the perpetuation of hurt. The hurt within yourself and the hurt that gets projected at others. It’s time to be accountable and clean out the attic in your mind. As the great Carl Jung once said, “who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
Feel it all.
Written by Lindsey Rohr
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