Discover Greater Growth by Embracing Emotions
Embracing Emotions Can Bring Personal Growth
by Sejal.G
Who among us doesn’t want to live a peaceful, joyful life?
Embracing emotions can bring us new growth and a more peaceful, blissful life. We try to incorporate peace in our lives. From managing our schedules, to bringing relaxing techniques and creating joyful activity in our daily lives, we’ve tried everything. We also meditate, do yoga, and remain calm as part of our growth, as we are compassionate and follow a mindful living. It feels good for some time then we’re back to where we started, as the everyday problems and situations remain intact: the same spouse, the same neighbor, the same child, the same best friend, the same family and similar situations. Living an everyday life means having to face and deal with pleasant and unpleasant situations.
What are emotions, anyway?
Emotions make us who we are. It’s as natural as breathing. All the energies that come our way, positive or negative process through us in the form of emotions. The word ‘emotion’ itself contains ‘the act of moving’. So all the energies come and move inside us which make us happy, sad, angry, nervous, excited, scared, jumpy and the list goes on.
What is an emotion exactly? A feeling, a sentiment, some sensation?
Can our life ever be free of emotions? Living everyday life is filled with positive and negative energies and these energies process inside us in the form of emotions. Each of us experiences them in different ways, so embracing emotions adds a lot to life. No wonder someone’s giggling, someone’s crying, someone’s dancing, someone’s angry, someone’s snappy, someone’s grinning.
What is the right way to deal with emotions without having to loose so much energy, especially our positive energy?
Some let these emotions go away if they burden us. Some sit with them for several days, remaining in cranky moods. Some engrave emotion in their hearts and may bring them up occasionally.
We think that letting the emotions go away all the time solves problem but in the long run, it’s can be unhealthy. If we always ignore our wants and feelings, we may live an outwardly happy life pleasing others, but still remain sad inwardly. This can lead some to take too many pills to sleep at night, or indulge in excess eating or drinking, in short, leading to a poor lifestyle.
If we let emotions sit inside us for some days, the danger may be in how we react to people around us. Our bad moods might be affecting our loved ones, our colleagues, and our work life. We don’t want to create or encourage negative energy, which can lead to low creativity or productivity, feed our ego with victim mentality, and drive ourselves to guilt with excess indulgence of food, drink, or other addictions.
If we engrave emotions in our heart, then there is danger of creating negative energies, as suppressed feelings and emotions grow in ways that make us sad and angry, and basically keep us from growth. These negative energies might eventually create rage, anger, revenge, sadness, or deep-seated illnesses. Instead of tossing our wants and feelings as just emotions, or housing them inside us for too long, we have to find a balance.
We have to understand what we’re feeling at the moment. Is the emotion making us happy or making us sad?
If its energy draining, leaving us with mixed feelings, negative thoughts, and making us unhappy, then the best to do is to toss them away. Let the wind blow them away from your life. Sometimes, I love to just cook a new dish, clean my home, or tend to the garden. The outcomes are simply satisfying and I find joy in doing these simple chores.
If however, the emotion helps you to be a better, kinder, compassionate human being then allow the emotion to be with you. Let the emotion to serve; do kind acts of humanitarian service that uplifts and eventually serves your higher purpose.
Whether the emotion is positive or negative, ignoring them has a counter effect. We might become moody, cranky or snappy for no reason. In short, we miss the joy of the present moment. We become sad or depressed or angry and let the moment pass by and live in sadness.
Embracing emotions can be just as important for spiritual-minded people. Sometimes we tend to ignore emotions just so that it won’t bother our peace or distract us from our practice. In Buddhist teaching, there is a practice where negative feelings or emotions are transformed to love by practicing with a compassion energy. This practice is also known as having a ‘compassionate bhava.’ ‘Bhava,’ in Sanskrit, is synonymous to feeling/energy. This is the highest form of embracing emotions. What we feel, transforms them into a compassionate mode.
For example, if someone gets angry with you and shouts at you, instead of shouting back at him or being angry with him, try to understand the person’s feelings or emotional state and forgive. This is a mindful practice that allows you full access to controlling your emotion and not lose your peace of mind just because someone is angry with you.
This is a difficult practice, but one that elevates us in growth to a higher spiritual level.
The simplest act we can do in everyday life, however, is embrace our emotions wholeheartedly. After embracing emotions, observe, absorb and either decide to let them stay or let the wind blow the emotions away whichever benefits you and brings happiness to you. This process helps to create a long-term happiness with ourselves or our souls.
The other way to eliminate excess emotions is to do physical work. When we use our hands to work or create, then the active energy gets transferred to whatever we’re doing and hence creates marvelous creations or beautifies our surrounding. This simultaneously satisfies our soul and creates joy. Remember, life is beautiful no matter what the circumstances and it is up to us to create joy. We grow when we have full control of our emotions and our thoughts.
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About the Author
Writer, positive soul, and Reiki practitioner, Sejal.G raises awareness on soul awakening and the soul growth process by living a conscious, spiritual life and practice mindful living. Sejal.G encourages people on their spiritual journey by writing and speaking on mindful living, overcoming obstacles on soul growth journey and on ways to gain inner strength. Find out more at: http://www.sejal333.com, on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SejalG-1050888801605221/, and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrernaSejalGuru
