Restricted Emotions – Questioning the Chains around your Heart

One of the Restricted Emotions

“Someday… we will be free!”

Ever had a feeling and then thought to yourself, “I’m stupid for feeling this way.”? And then have you tried to stop the feeling, and restrict your emotions? Well, those emotions are like people in chains. And the ones holding the chains are the voices inside you who are saying, “You’re so stupid for feeling that way!”

Thoughts like: “I can’t believe I’m so upset.” “I can’t get this angry!” “Damn it, I need to tough it out, not get so down about everything…” – these come from restricting your emotions.

“But… but I can’t just let my emotions run wild!” you might say. Yeah, part of me thinks the same way. I think – well, if I just let loose, well, who knows what could happen? I might get out of control – I might go in a direction in life I don’t want to. I might do stupid things, I might get egotistical. Better to shut my self down, right?

Well, I think there’s another way. Do I know what it is yet? I have theories, but… no, I don’t know.

One thing to keep in mind is that when you restrict your emotions, each emotion is coming from a part of yourself who you are devaluing. You think – “if they are acting that way, they must not be worthy of my attention.” But you know what, they are. Who says one part of you has the right to treat other parts of you in such a way?

Or do you really want to drag yourself, kicking and screaming, to every goal in life? The part of you kicking and screaming might have something important to say about it all.

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A Note about “Visions”

Aside

The other day I said I had a “vision” – I wanted to clarify what I meant. I do not mean I had some kind of hallucination, and fell down randomly and maybe frothed at the mouth a little. No, the kind of “vision” I had is a completely ordinary thing that everybody does all the time. If I were to ask you how you were feeling right now, and, instead of telling me “fine”, told me “I feel like I’m standing on a beach on a bright, calm day”, you just told me your vision of how you’re feeling. Whatever you envision yourself to feel like is a vision, at least according to me.

So why do I pursue visions of things? Sometimes, to really get at the root of things, you need to sit down, close your eyes, and let the image emerge: the subtle details of it, and the changes over time. And this simple process is key to getting to the heart of emotional issues, especially those bothering you that moment. Because once you see what things are really like, you can start to question it and change it around.