Manifesting Our Emotional Wisdom

Looking at the wisdom in our emotions, the information they provide concerning our current path and projects, as well as the energy they provide to propel what we're attempting to manifest into being.

Transcript

Manifesting Our Emotional Wisdom

Emotions are thought of as "less than" to pretty much everything. We valorize logic, control, willpower and intention, idolize our soul's guidance and wisdom, and work to keep our body in alignment with our manifestation efforts. Our emotions end up being somewhat like the tides or the wind in all this. We hope they will help and support us, but sometimes they are against us and there's no telling which way things will go until the moment is upon us.

There's an underlying assumption which is the foundation for how western culture deals with emotions, which is all emotions are like wild animals. Some can be domesticated, others can be controlled, and some need to be avoided at all costs for the safety of everyone. Like dragons, most emotions are labeled as unable to coexist with modern culture and so need to be eradicated if at all possible. 

The thing is, emotions aren't animals to be wrangled, nor are they mysterious forces of nature. 

They are us. 

If facts are the truth about the world around us, then emotions are the truth about the world within us. They are energy expressed in order to communicate information about us. This could be about something which is manifesting from within or an interaction we had/are having with the world outside us.

Because of this, it's important to realize all emotions are good. 

I think it's important to note, before we go much further, there is a big difference between emotions and the actions we take because we are having an emotion. Feeling angry is not the same as punching a hole through the wall. Feeling depressed is not the same thing as eating an entire pan of brownies. Feeling pain and fear is not the same as cutting your arm with a razor blade. 

Emotions are energy. They are the unique truth of who we are and how we are being in the moment. None of them are wrong or bad. Some feel more powerful than others, some are incredibly uncomfortable, and there are those we wish we wouldn't have to go through because they aren't fun or are inconvenient.

However, all of them have wisdom and are aspects of ourselves.

Having an emotion is not the same as expressing an emotion, however this is one of the things we are taught by our families. We don't tell children to express their anger, grief or fear in appropriate ways. We tell them not to be angry or sad or afraid. We don't teach children how to identify what they're feeling and find a way to express it positively and appropriately or to problem solve what has caused the issue. Instead, we teach children to repress the "bad" emotions and enhance the good ones.

This becomes more complex with our rules around how genders experience and express emotions. In general, men are allowed to express aggressive emotions but not ones which require vulnerability. Similarly, women are generally not allowed aggressive emotions or even ones which would allow them to experience themselves as valued, equal or respected. Female emotions are expected to be about interconnection with and attention to others as well as earning the right to be.

This has led us to have dysfunctional relationships with our emotions and to be functionally illiterate around what they mean and what they are attempting to express to us.

We expend more energy attempting to manage and control them than listening to them, for the most part. We develop coping mechanisms such as dissociating from them entirely, so we basically don't feel or are numb. We incorporate ways of eating in order to repress/stuff/assuage them throughout the day. We develop addictions to medicate them so we don't have to deal and in extreme cases our bodies take them on in the form of diabetes or arthritis or other chronic issues which try to focus our attention on the imbalance.

Emotional energy can be thought of like a light bulb or a battery.

Light bulbs burn bright to show us what is there when things are dark. They make it possible for us to see clearly and do more throughout our day. But if used too much, left on too long, they can burn out, leaving us in the dark. People experience this when they try just one more new employer to get that feeling of approval, community, and achievement but find the feeling wears off almost immediately. This is also the effect of just one more relationship which turns out like all the rest which came before.

Batteries store energy for when we need it. But if left on the charger they can overheat or even explode in some cases. While if they aren't used, they either corrode and end up leaking all over everything or they simply go dead because the charge was dispersed over time. Most people experience this when the last little thing happens and we explode, not because of the current thing, but everything which has accumulated over the days/weeks/years. Or coming to find, once we've finally arrived at the moment we've been working for, we just don't care about the outcome and everything seems flat, grey, like ashes on the tongue.

Emotions tell us the truth about ourselves and how we're interacting with the world. They have no reason to lie, don't have any interest in logic, risk benefit analysis, best practices or "shoulds". They are the song our soul sings to us about who we really are and the path we are meant to walk in this lifetime.

Creating a relationship with our emotions

For those who have learned to not feel their emotions, which makes it seem as if you don't have any or everything just seems the same all the time, the easiest way to reconnect with them is to check in.

Just like we would do with someone we haven't talked with in a while, we can stop and ask ourselves, "How are you doing?" If you want to get more direct, you can ask, "How am I feeling?" This is something I recommend doing a bit like a Buddhist doing mindfulness practice. In Buddhist communities there is a practice of ringing a bell at irregular times throughout the day. When the bell is heard it is a signal to stop whatever you're doing immediately, turn your attention towards yourself and become mindful of the moment. It's a means of returning to the Now and getting out of whatever headspace we've been in.

So, throughout the day, at irregular times or after each activity, ask yourself, "How am I feeling?" Don't force an answer if you don't have one and don't take a huge amount of time looking for one. Just check in and if the answer is "meh" or "I don't know" or "fine" then that's good. If it's something else, that's good too. 

Find the Why?

If you have access to your emotions, the next step in relationship building and to start receiving their wisdom is to ask "Why?". 

Emotions aren't random. They don't just come up like the Loch Ness Monster or Sasquatch and then disappear again. They are truths which emerge because of things happening inside us due to internal or external interactions. 

And, to be honest, it's not unusual for people to ask Why? when they are having strong emotions. The problem is, they aren't asking themselves in order to find out their own essential truth, but instead asking external forces why this is happening to me or being done to me. They are looking for pain relief, remedy, and escape rather than an unfolding. And fair enough.

However, if we ask ourselves Why? with the object being for our emotions to tell us the truth, we will receive an answer. Often many.

The hard part is most of us already know the truth in the emotions. This truth is the reason we work so hard to not have them. Because our emotional truths have a tendency to shatter all of our carefully constructed logical reasoning for why we're doing something, not doing something, or working to be something else. And like a bell calling us to mindfulness, once we allow ourselves to know this truth, we can't unknow it. And once known it takes a tremendous amount of energy to ignore it again. Sometimes it's not even possible.

Emotional Wisdom Propels Manifestation

The reason why western culture works so hard to get us to repress and control our emotions, in part, is they are the fuel which propels the manifestation of our divinity into the world. Emotions point out where things are unhealthy for us, threaten us and the good of others, try to force us into being a resource rather than a being, and much more. They point to where we have gotten off track on our path, where we should say emphatically No or enthusiastically Yes, and guide us through options in a way which doesn't necessarily support an economy of consumption.

All of these negative messages about our emotions point out an unspoken truth, they are powerful forces for good if we allow ourselves healthy relationships with them and learn to channel their wisdom.

To do this it's important to think of the process somewhat like learning to drive a car or text on your smart phone. You didn't originally know how to do these things, but you learned and now it's second nature. At the beginning it's all awkward, takes a great deal of attention, you make mistakes...a lot...and you learn from them and see progress all along the way. 

So, once you've started to hear the why of something, start allowing this why to be important enough to take a positive action concerning it. I guarantee you won't have to invent that action. The wisdom in the emotion will point you towards it like a huge road flare. The issue will be to allow yourself to take the action without your mind interfering. Our internal monologue is adept at making us feel bad for wanting to do or be things our emotions are guiding us towards. We're not allowed because we can't afford it, it's childish, we have too many responsibilities, it's not practical, there are bills to pay, it would take too long, we're not good enough.... the list of reasons to deny ourselves is endless.

Emotions are energy therefore containing their own propulsion mechanism, as it were. If we allow ourselves to know their wisdom, they provide the means to take a step towards manifesting that wisdom. If we allow ourselves to move even a small step in this direction, the positive effects are usually immediate and exponentially good.