Stop Avoiding Negative Emotions
Negative emotions have such a bad rap. Fear, Anger, Sadness, Guilt, Shame, Jealously, Loneliness, etc. No one invites them to the party on purpose. In fact, people will go great lengths to ensure that they never have to experience them at all. But here’s the truth: life is 50/50. 50% positive emotion, 50% negative. There is no way around it. Sorry. And when we pretend that this ratio doesn’t apply to us, when we avoid, dread, and suppress the negative emotions, we are only creating unnecessary suffering in the process.
The only reason we unconsciously do this is because we are afraid of what our negative emotions might mean about ourselves. We create a story around our sadness or shame, which then gets repeated in our brain over and over and eventually becomes a part of our perceived identity.
Here’s another truth bomb, our emotions, both good AND bad, do not mean anything. They are completely harmless. They are not messages from the deep about your true worth, they are just vibrations in your body. And when we experience an emotion in our body, there is no need to resist. They are not here to arrest you and lock you away in the shame prison for life, they are here to communicate with you and teach you something.
Important facts you should know about your emotions:
Emotions (or feelings), begin in the brain and are sent to the body. We are vibrational creatures (light, sound, energy, etc) and emotions are experienced vibrationally in the body (check the science, I’m not talking about “The Secret” here I’m talking about peer reviewed scientific journals).
Physical sensations are NOT emotions. Sensations begin in the body and are sent to the brain. Foot gets run over, foot tells brain OUCH, this sensation began in the foot and was sent to the brain. Know the difference.
Our THOUGHTS create our emotions and feelings. Every time. No exceptions. Crazy huh? You’ve been creating your own feelings your entire life and I bet not a damn person has told you that yet.
Our emotions are only meant to be experienced momentarily, and then processed out of the body. However, our society has grown accustomed to suppressing emotions and never properly processing them which creates a world of unnecessary pain for everyone.
Our emotions are simply information, nothing more. There is nothing to be afraid of when venturing in to feel more deeply. In fact, the less afraid we are to feel and experience negative emotion, the stronger, more empowered, and unstoppable we become.
Here’s a shortcut. Guess which emotion almost every human has at the core of their own story? Shame. For some reason, the story of shame and unworthiness has made its way into everyone’s socialization in this country (there’s actually a reason for that but, for another time). Even if you have been feeling shame for the last 40 years, it isn’t too late to change the story. It isn’t too late to process that out of your body and let it go. It is never too late to forgive yourself for what you didn’t know until now. The good news is, shame is a harmless emotion. You cannot “be” an emotion, you can only FEEL an emotion.
You are worthy. Simply because you exist. Don’t let the fact that you can experience negative emotions confuse you about your worth and your lovability. You are worthy. And you always have been, every single day of your life, you have been.
Remember that as you continue on, feelings and all.
