I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them to enjoy them. Oscar Wilde
Your best chance of having really good health physically, mentally, and emotionally is to be born with excellent DNA, and with 2 parents who love you unconditionally. If that is not the case for you (it’s too late now), then there are many things you can do to increase your chances of increasing the flow of health in your life. This post is about one of those ways of increasing health: Clear out the emotional baggage that is blocking good things in your life.
The Latin word from which we derived the word emotion is “emovre,” which simply means “to move.” Emotions are a driving force for movement in our lives. That movement can work for us or against us.
All emotions are healthy emotions. Many emotions become very unhealthy when they accumulate and block us from experiencing the positive energy that can result from allowing emotions to flow.
The basic emotions are joy, sadness, fear, anger, and guilt. All of them have a role in facilitating our progression in life; however, if some emotions accumulate, it is as if they cause an infection to develop in our mind and body. Accumulated emotions cause physical and mental stress. 95% of all illness is created by stress, according to the research of Dr. Bruce Lipton (The Biology of Belief).
We humans have a tendency to hold onto certain emotions from our past. Most people experience some sort of traumas, disappointments, betrayals, and losses in life which produce emotions that are appropriate at the time of the event; but many people tend to never completely move on from some of those experiences emotionally. It is important to move on from the traumas, disappointments, etc.
I know: Easier said than done. True. But, there are things we can do to clear the emotional baggage:
- Be honest with yourself about what bothers you. Just face the issues that tend to upset you, no matter how ridiculous they might seem. Facing these issues can help you learn to deal with them more effectively, which might involve changing the way you think, changing a behavior, or changing the company you keep.
- Listen to your emotions. Sometimes emotions have a message for you. Sometimes all they want is to be heard. (Yes, I just personified emotions, because they really are a lot like children: sometimes they just want to be heard.) Truly facing your emotions can help you move on.
- Talk to a supportive person about whatever you are feeling, no matter how irrational the emotion might seem to be. A “Supportive Person” will not judge you, criticise you, nor give you advice. They will listen, and try to understand what you are experiencing. You might have to pay for this; but if you do, it will be worth every penny.
- Look at your beliefs. Often, it is your belief (what you tell yourself) that causes the troubling emotions to continue to dominate your life. The process of clearing out all of the beliefs and values that caused me to have underlying anxiety most of my life was the most freeing thing I ever did. To be honest, I still have to do a tune-up occasionally.
Emotional clarity will set you free.
Christopher Knippers, Ph.D. June 7, 2017
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