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Click play below for a reading of today's intentional session from Matt.
Find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all.
– Robert Louis Stevenson
It may have occurred to you as you worked through the last segment, that it is not only our “negative” emotions that we have been burying.
We are a social species. Our connection to our “tribe” is of the utmost importance to our well-being. Sometimes we try to make sure that we do not “upset that applecart” by seeming like “too much”. If we have been led to believe that what others think or feel is somehow our responsibility, it is likely that we will “contain” our passion or joy to “protect” them.
Imagine, unknowingly, walking into a group of people that are discussing the pain of someone's upcoming divorce after you have won $5000 dollars. What does your “training” tell you is the appropriate behavior?
In this segment we will observe how we may be masking or burying our passion, enthusiasm or joy (or other “positive” emotions) and why.
Let's begin, with a pause.
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The observations that we are making by turning our focus towards ourselves are exactly what we need to discover our own Beauty.
When we finally begin to feel acceptance for who we are and where we are, we also become aware of our current relationships feeling more authentic and stronger. The Beauty that we see in ourselves becomes the Beauty we see in all things.
LET'S PRACTICE
For our Pause in this segment, sit quietly with yourself for a while.
- Can you remember what Joy, Freedom, Optimism, Love, and Passion feel like?
- Can you bring yourself to the place where you last felt one of these emotions?
- Can you move from one to the other and feel a difference?
- Document what you have observed.
What is one emotion or feeling you enjoy tapping into?
I express my feelings and emotions honestly.
I have the wisdom and courage to Love.
I know my emotional language.
What do you notice when you speak today's intention out loud?
Sometimes a splendid expression of emotion strikes a chord in our conditioning.
Do you have any memory of feeling like you were expressing your enthusiasm, joy, or passion too largely? Were you told as a child that you were too loud, too enthusiastic, too “emotional”?
Search for large expressions of emotion (positive or negative) either by finding a group and observing, watching movie clips, or remembering one of your own experiences. Although we are searching for Beauty, there is a lot of information that can be gathered by doing this exercise. Information that pertains to your own conditioning and beliefs.
Find the Beauty in the magnificent freedom of emotional expression.
How does it feel? Document your observations in your journal.
In the last segment, we looked at how our (so-called) “negative” beliefs could be affecting our reality. In this segment, we find any possible resistance to expressing our “positive” emotions.
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Remember to move quickly without analysis or judgment. We just want to hear what our subconscious has to say:
I can remember feeling happy when …
Sometimes, today, I feel happy when …
Sometimes, when I feel happy, I …
Sometimes, I try to hide my happiness by …
One of the ways my disguised happiness comes out is …
If I were more accepting of my feelings of happiness …
If I were willing to let people see my joy …
Sometimes. when I was younger, the frightening thing about letting people see my joy was …
Sometimes, today, the frightening thing about letting people see my joy is …
If I were to live more fully in the present …
If I were willing to breathe deeply and feel my joy without restraint …
I am beginning to suspect …
If I allow myself to understand what I have been writing …
If my subconscious has been learning more than I yet know …
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Nice work!
To dive deeper into the suppression of your “positive” emotions change the word joy/happy above to: Love, Loved, Excitement, Freedom, Passion, Enthusiasm.
Another exercise that can be transformative is to do the sentence completions from the past two segments every day for a week. You will duplicate some endings but that is okay. New information will also be revealed.
Read over the journaling sentence endings that you have done regarding emotions.
Add any observations that occur to you. Are you surprised by any of your observations?
Many people are more concerned with avoiding hurt and rejection than with fully experiencing joy and love.
In the end, they sabotage their own happiness or never feel fully “alive”. We are not prisoners of our conditioning if we are aware. We can ease into our emotional expression with baby steps. We can be seen and heard and we can love fully by beginning, now, to speak the authentic language of our emotions. A large part of our self-discovery is accurately identifying which emotion we are feeling, where we are feeling it in our body, and expressing it without judgment towards ourselves.
“Sometimes it is helpful for others to be aware of my true emotions so they can better understand me and my behaviors.
This awareness makes my relationships stronger. It is vulnerable and authentic– when I can do it.
I have miles to go before I will feel “comfortable” expressing all my emotions in a group or with certain individuals but I am learning to accurately identify my feelings and that is expansion.
Often, when I have a feeling that needs to be expressed I take it to a journal page. In my creative journal, I can be as authentic and vulnerable as I want to be. I am safe and I am free.”
Today, let's create in a way that expresses our emotions and feelings authentically and vulnerably!
Over to you!
What is one of your favorite ways to express yourself through creating?
Feel free to come back and share it with us in the comments below or on our private online community »
Today's intentional session is an excerpt from The “Art” of Self Discovery Online Self-Guided Journey – JOIN FOR FREE »
