Want to know what happens when you let those painful emotions out? What happens when you give in to the fight within yourself to keep them under wraps and out of sight?
The world does not end.
You do not fall apart.
You feel them, you release them, and you stop carrying them around.
*You stop carrying them around.*
I’m making it sound easy and of course when dealing with significant trauma it’s helpful to look at painful emotions with the support of a trained professional, but here is the crux of it: if the pain you’re feeling is heavy and causing you issues in your day to day life, it will be SO much easier when you’re not carrying it around with you everywhere you go.
Contrary to popular belief, feeling an emotion doesn’t make it worse. It doesn’t make it grow. It allows you to acknowledge the magnitude of the feeling, and allow it space to pass through and be honoured and released. It ends the shame cycle we feel when we try to deny and bury an emotion that clearly exists within us, that we don’t want to admit to. Denying it won’t make it go away, it makes it fester within us until it bubbles up anyway.
Let yourself feel whatever you’re feeling, without the judgement and meaning surrounding it. Give it space to be acknowledged and felt, and it will very quickly dissipate. Easier than trying to bury it, no?
Current reading inspiration: Letting Go by David R Hawkins.