Both of my readings this morning spoke to the Divine presence in difficult times.
How we work so hard to avoid painful emotions. How we (perhaps unconsciously) think that life should be happy and if we’re having “negative thoughts” or hard times, it shouldn’t be that way.
Or we aren’t doing things right.
I know that’s true for me.
Here’s what I have come to know and am reminding myself of today.
Life is a mix of “good” and “bad” experiences. Of pain and of pleasure. Of blessings and unexpected tragedies. There’s just no way around it. Each of us will have our turn “in the middle.”
When we do whatever we can to avoid feeling bad or sad or lonely or angry – we don’t resolve those feelings – we just put them on stand by. Or shove them in the closet.
Energetically, this has big consequences.
Emotions need to flow. They need to come up, be acknowledged, wash through us, and then resolve. They are part of being in human form.
When we stop the flow of emotions or numb them by staying busy, watching TV, overeating, drinking too much, smoking pot.. we affect the flow.
Stuck or ignored emotions can look like now knowing who you are. Feeling disconnected from your purpose. Chronic anxiety or depression symptoms. Indecisiveness. Emotional responses disproportionate to the triggering event (road rage, for example) Physical ailments (the mind and body and energy body – where emotions live – are interconnected.)
To be fully alive, we have to learn how to move through difficult times, to be with difficult emotions.
We must come to see that they won’t kill us. And perhaps consider that Divine presence or God (however you define God) might not just exist in happy times, but in our difficult experiences, as well.
Just think, our Higher Self or Soul doesn’t just leave in difficult times. It’s always there for us. Like our breath. In happy times and difficult times.
When we turn away from painful emotions or numb ourselves to them – we are literally abandoning ourselves.
The most alive I felt was when I got cancer. That terrifying, miserable, humbling experience cut through the thick layer of my distracted living to the core of what really mattered. My essence. God in us.
My gentle advice for you today is to let your difficult emotions arise and just be with them.
Turn off the TV and cry.
Put down the alcohol and rock.
Sit your ass down and pick up your journal.
Stop running from yourself. Difficult emotions feel like they will burn, and sometimes they do.
But that’s the fire of transformation. Of emotional digestion and trust me, it’s less “painful” in the long run than buffering – which contributed to increased anxiety, and disconnection from your Self.
That’s my ramble for this morning.
It’s for me as much as it is for you.
