Day 12 - I will let my feelings express themselves
The seeker may have followed this course assiduously so far, yet something still seems amiss. Lingering below the surface, subtle hurt resides. What has gone wrong? What must still be done?
Two more emotional blockages remain in many souls seeking the path. We shall deal with the first today.
Suppression is an enemy at the gate that slows down the progress of many a kind and loving soul who just wants to live in peace.
Here is how the problem surfaces:
Someone in relationship with the seeker says or does something that offends the emotional body, but not the mental self. The mind explains that the offense was not a big deal and not worth replying to and with the risk of a full-blown argument resulting in hard feelings. Despite the mind making this argument to the whole self, the emotional self doesn’t buy it and continues to be offended.
The mind notes the offensive feeling and decides to take charge. Basically, it says this to the feeling self:
“The offense just is not worth making a fuss over. We need to just forget about it and move on.”
The emotional self then registers a complaint. It wants to have its say. But the mind who has more authority puts its foot down and says:
“Peace is more important than your hurt feelings. I am not letting you disturb our relationship with our friend.”
The mind thus exerts its authority and suppresses the feeling nature and prevents it from expressing itself. After a period of what seems like peace, the mind becomes convinced it did the right thing and all seems well.
This situation continues until the friend commits the same offense again. And again the mind takes charge and commands the emotions to be quiet. This time the negative energy held by the emotions increases.
Then the offense happens two more times and the mind again commands silence to the emotions. The negative feelings accumulate and the emotional self feels it cannot contain much more. It must either release the negative emotions or send a message to the whole self by causing a disease to manifest.
Finally, one more visit is paid to the friend and he makes another offending remark. It was fairly mild but it was enough to add just enough fuel to the emotional self to cause it to explode. The energy was so strong that the mind could not hold it back and the self lashed out at the friend with a fury that caused great hurt and alarm.
This damaged the friendship but it had a positive effect in that the emotional self did not have to manifest a disease.
The assignment today is to again look back on the various emotional hurts you have had in life. Has there been a tendency for you to pretend that you were not hurt when you were? Do not be hesitant at honesty here, for most have made this pretense at one time or another. If you do find a past situation ask yourself how you could have communicated the negative emotion at the beginning to avoid larger problems later on.
Now examine your current feelings. Is your emotional self still harboring any negative feelings that have been suppressed by the mind?
The solution is the same as the last lesson, which is to find a way to harmlessly communicate the negative feelings as soon as they arise. This may seem difficult but the problem of communicating in the present is much less than the outburst or ill health that can result from suppression.
End your period of reflection by saying this:
“I am honest with my feelings as well as my thoughts, and this honesty will open the door to greater light and love.”
Copyright by J J Dewey
Hunting God: A HowTo, Day 11 - I will communicate my grievances and let them go.
NOTICE: Although posted here with permission of the author, I am not the originator of this content and should the originator eventually see fit to begin posting here, I will leave it to him.