It is well known by almost everyone that what we call 'stress' is a huge problem in life, since it can damage our relationships and even cause physical illness. One of the most valuable understandings regarding stress, that most still are not acting on, is that we must learn to value our own emotions to lower stress levels.
Anatomically, stress is a measurable and defined phenomenon which may involve several changes in the body, such as dilation of pupils (allowing in more light to allow greater awareness of the environment) and a redirection of blood flow from digestive organs towards muscles (to allow running/fighting in emergency situations).
Psychologically, stress is often defined as being the presence of an internal tension which might be felt as tightened muscles and a readiness to spring into action at any moment. Emotionally, there may be a variety of feelings related to stress - often including some fear that may be connected to a wide variety of thought patterns that relate to the present situation, past situations and to future possibilities too.
Intelligent Emotions
We often hear of 'emotional intelligence' (EQ) and some will doggedly claim that emotional intelligence doesn't even exist. I define EQ as essentially being our own awareness of our emotions - however, there is also another very important factor here that is often missed. Our emotions have their own intelligent presence and function that is INDEPENDENT of our awareness (mentally) of them. In other words, we could have a low awareness of our own emotions (due to us ignoring them) and yet the emotions themselves can contain a great deal of intelligence and understanding. This is like having access to the internet, containing a vast wealth of information, and yet only ever logging on to use Google to search for simple and unimportant keywords.
Stress is Imbalance
Given that it is possible for us to ignore our own feelings and deny their message - it needs to be understood that to do so is a loss of balance. Stress typically involves a pushing/pulling of us in some way beyond our preferred safety levels and we feel a need to make changes to counter being forced out of our preferred state. For example, if a lion is growling at us 10 meters away and there is nothing between us - if we are not someone who is an expert with lions - we are likely to feel very strongly that we need to make changes to feel safe again.
Our feelings are a kind of gauge that lets us know how safe we are and guides our thinking towards right actions - however, if our mind overpowers our feelings then we lose their input and insight into the present moment, which is to our detriment. When we are highly attuned to our feelings and fully accept them, we learn that they are always giving us information and are something like a needle on a record that relays the vibrational changes in life back to us as we continue traveling around to our own groove!
If we really feel the message our feelings give us then we know, sometimes in advance, when we are going to be pushed out of our preferred state and we can make changes accordingly. This is a real way for us to be safe that does not require complex calculations and predictions. By relying on what is felt that is itself based on actual connection to the energetic reality of life, rather than relying on complex mental calculations that attempt to MODEL the energetic reality of life - we are able to have access to a far higher degree of accuracy than would otherwise be possible in our decision making process. This, by itself, lowers our stress levels significantly.
Emotional needs
If you think back to your childhood there's a good chance you can recall many times where other people tried to force you to do something against your will - it may have been a demand to go to school or church or to do some kind of work task. Typically, there has been a huge lack of respect given to the real feelings of children (and adults) on Earth and so there is a huge emotional injury across the population that results in a vast array of dysfunctions that are now so commonplace that they are called 'normal' and some heartless people even laugh at the idea of listening to feelings more.
The reality, here, though is that unless we learn to understand that we have actual emotional NEEDS that must be respected, we will always be in a state of chronic stress that creates bio chemical conditions that lead to ill health and lowers human potential.
Meeting emotional needs can be as simple as changing our thinking such that when we are pushed/pulled to do something that we don't feel ready/able/willing to do, we simply make our emotional state more important than the mental commandment of whoever is attempting to get us to act (even when that person is us!). As an example, there might be a pronouncement made that 'everyone must get out of bed at 8am' - yet when 8am comes around, we might feel a need to rest longer (since our body needs more time to process it's chemical state to keep us healthy and balanced) and so we are faced with either going against our feelings or going against the pronouncement made by someone else. It is common in such situations for groups of unconscious people to attempt to guilt and control everyone into acting the same way and going against their real feelings and this is often done to allegedly 'toughen up' people. However, this does not have the effect of truly strengthening people since it actually causes imbalance and denies the body's necessary functions. The most it can do is cause chronic imbalance/stress and then if the person survives then that is somehow translated as being a sign of their 'toughness'. Any toughness that is present would have been present anyway and toughness cannot be increased by creating chronic stress - eventually in fact, the toughness will decrease as the body/spirit system loses it's ability to return to real balance.
In short, doing what you feel you need and want to do is not wrong - even in the face of voices to the contrary - provided you are not overpowering anything else in the process. If you always do only what you feel you can do and no more, then that is PERFECT and in no way wrong. How does that feel? Does it bring up thoughts and feelings that are in conflict about these ideas? Then these are thoughts and feelings that are surfacing for healing, which are causing unconscious stress, and that will be at peace once the dynamics involved are fully balanced. It is typical that there will be anger at having been forced to be emotionally denied and that there will be thought patterns that feel heartless and that aren't really based on absolute truth. By allowing the feelings to move and express privately, in a safe way, using sound made by the voice and body - we can promote peace and more easily clear up the incorrect logic that has caused us to feel stressed for so long.
It is to be expected that in a society that causes stress constantly in the name of 'insert tradition here', that we will find that we disagree more and more with those who are around us as we start to find real balance. While it can be helpful to share experiences with those who have more open hearts and minds, it is also helpful to simply move away from those who are not yet aware of their need to be aware.
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
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