Our emotional health says a lot about what is going on in our internal world. And this week we are going to explore in depth what your emotions are trying to tell you. I love this Rumi quote and it sums up why it is so vital to pay attention to our emotions.
“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.” – Rumi
What emotion do you experience often?
Let’s use it as a clue into what’s happening with you. What is the emotion you experience often? Is it anger, guilt, numbness, joy, happiness? A default emotion is that emotion you go to often, even if it doesn’t fit the situation. It’s important to determine this default emotion as it may be “covering” up your other emotions and the truth as to what is really going on.
I posted this question on Facebook this week, “What is the emotion you experience often?” and this was a post in response to my question:
“Stress!! A ball of stress right in my throat with the world on my shoulders. ” -Tiffany
Here is the wisdom I shared with her: “Most of us have “stress” and just live with it, without identifying the cause of the stress or the emotions that are being triggered. Connect with the ball of stress in your throat and identify what emotion or emotions are there. Is it fear, anger, guilt, overwhelm, sadness, the inability to speak your truth, etc? And then ask: What’s one thing you could do today to give yourself some relief or a release from that stress or emotion. Our “stress” and emotions are always trying to get our attention, if we are willing to listen. Again, thanks for sharing that Tiffany, as so many people feel the same way!”
Do the exercise below to gain further wisdom from your emotions- it will open you up to a new space of freedom and peace.
Exercise your Emotions
Take your “anxiety” or any other emotion on a walk (yes, literally, a walk). . Put your walking shoes on, go outside and then. . .just LISTEN.
As you listen, identify: What is this emotion trying to communicate to you. . .what do you need to know. .what is it trying to get you to see. . .to do? I did this exercise a few months ago and took my “anxiety” on a walk and this is what my anxiety said:
“Relax! Let life be as it is. . focus on what’s important to you and let everyone else and everything work itself out. You can’t control it anyway. Bring your energy to all things but not your fear, not your anxiety, not your worry. When you focus on fear and anxiety, you guarantee you will get the very result you don’t want. The very result you feared. Let go. Relax. Breathe into the simplicity of all things in your life now. Your daughter, the sun, the wind on your cheeks, your health, Breathe it in. Enjoy it. Now is the only moment there is. Anxiety and worry and fear live in the future and are based on the past. Live in this moment and all that melts away.”
Once I got clear about what my anxiety was wanting to communicate with me, the other person and situation I was trying to control, worrying about and had anxiety about, just disappeared from my mind. I wasn’t even thinking about them anymore. It was really like magic- the anxiety about them just disappeared. Because remember, it was never about them in the first place. It was my anxiety being transferred onto them and the situation.
