Lots of love and blessings.
Thank you for your wonderful presence.
Today I'd like to talk about feeling.
Of feelings.
To be perfectly honest,
I have avoided my feelings for most of my life,
Even though I've done a lot of meditation.
It's not that I haven't felt my feelings at all,
It's just that there's always something to do,
There's always something to achieve,
Some project.
Some something to eat there's so many things so many ways you know cell phones there's so many ways we can avoid just really feeling our feelings fully.
Having taught so many people and been on this journey for nearly 30 years,
I have come to realise that my own major problems in life.
.
.
Big and small,
And most of my client's students.
It comes down to not wanting to feel what we're feeling.
Because if I don't feel Good.
If I'm feeling either emotionally disturbed,
Stressed out,
Worried,
Anxious,
Fearful.
.
.
Angry.
Craving something whatever it is right any negative feeling then there is a knee-jerk reaction to escape it,
To run away from it.
And that can temporarily take our mind off of it like if I watch a movie or if I talk to somebody or if I eat something right there's all kinds of substances there's shopping I mean there's a whole billion dollar trillion dollar industry to avoid us feeling our feelings so It can become very easy for us to feel something and then not like it and then run in to do something to try and avoid it.
The problem is that the things that we do to avoid our feelings don't solve the underlying issues.
Because they're still there.
And oftentimes,
Let's say for example,
I feel bad and I eat some food that isn't good for me because I don't want to feel my feelings.
Then that can have a negative effect on my body.
Which then makes me feel bad again.
Then I want to eat something else or do something else,
Right?
Or let's say I'm feeling bad and I want to watch a movie or go on social media.
It's not resolved the issue and now I've spent a bunch of time doing something I didn't need to do instead of doing the things I do need to do and the feeling is still there and I haven't taken care of what needs to be done.
Which is another problem which means I'm going to have more feelings to deal with.
And then I might go shopping.
And then I waste money on stuff I don't need and then I have to send it back.
So can you see how this is not a very effective way of going about things?
So the solution to this is to have the courage and the love and compassion just to sit here and say am I willing to to just feel whatever I'm feeling.
It sounds simpler than it is,
And it is actually simple,
But we're not thinking about feeling our feelings,
We're not analyzing why we have the feelings,
And we're not trying to go back into past life regression or traumas from childhood or anything like that.
We're just saying Am I willing just to sit here?
And feel whatever I'm feeling without resisting it.
So let's practice that right now,
If you'd like to.
Let's just sit here for one minute,
Or even 30 seconds,
And just notice,
What are you feeling?
Just feel your feelings,
Whatever they are.
And you can just breathe and as you breathe Just welcome the feeling.
Just allow it.
You're safe and secure.
It's just a feeling.
It's a passing experience.
It's an energy in motion.
You might notice,
Where do you feel it?
In the body,
Is it in the heart?
Soul plexus.
It's normally one of these chakras,
We feel it.
Where is the feeling?
Just notice it.
Don't worry about why it's there or what it means.
Just sit with it as it is.
As best as you can.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
Just breathe into it.
Welcome in.
Welcome.
I welcome everything.
Everything's okay.
I have love and compassion for all parts of my being and I'm just welcoming whatever I'm feeling right now.
Just notice the effect.
Of welcoming rather than resisting.
It's a very subtle thing.
Normally,
Because we don't like feeling bad,
We don't.
Want to feel it,
We don't want to welcome it,
We want to resist it,
We want to push it away because we don't like it,
Which is completely understandable.
The problem is,
It gets worse because what we resist persists,
Whereas if we welcome it,
We're allowing things to move through us.
As a detached observer,
As a witness,
As the bigger presence that contains the feelings.
So just breathe into it if you can,
If you'd like to.
Just notice where it is.
You don't even have to label it.
It might be a combination of feelings.
It could be all kinds of things.
I am just having an experience right now and I'm welcoming the experience.
And then,
When you're ready.
.
.
And you can do this as long as you want because just welcoming it is half of the healing.
Now when you're ready.
.
.
You can ask.
Would I like to let this go?
Can I let this go?
Can I release this?
And I find it helpful to imagine a higher power or a divine energy that I am surrendering it to.
I'm saying here I'm welcoming this,
I'm aware of this feeling,
You know,
Like a pen.
Here it is.
I'm welcoming the pen.
And I am going to let it go.
Just drop it.
And it might not all go right away because there's a lot of feelings inside of us.
But when you drop it,
It releases some of it.
And then you can release a bit more.
And a little bit more and it gradually drop by drop.
We become very peaceful,
Very relaxed.
And we realize the feeling that we had underneath the feeling,
The negative feeling,
Is actually a golden pot.
Of bubbling joy.
We all have a golden pot of bubbling joy inside of us.
And there's a lid on the top and there's a little monster sitting on the top of the lid going rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr you know,
I'm stressed out,
I want this,
And there's,
This is a complicated situation.
So if we can release,
Just very compassionately release those feelings,
Then the lid can come off.
And the good feelings bubble up nicely because underneath any negative feeling is Love.
Peace.
Joy.
Please.
Happiness.
Purity.
And freedom.
That's what we are.
And all this other stuff is just things that have come up.
That are passing through.
On our wonderful journey through life.
And so In another session I can talk more about the releasing part of it,
But let's just start with allowing the feelings.
Unless we can welcome the feelings,
We can't let go of them.
So it's a wonderful practice.
I find half the feeling goes away just by welcoming it,
And then the other half goes away just by gradually dropping,
Letting go,
Letting go.
And then you come back,
Welcome a bit more,
Release.
And you're safe and secure.
And all is well.
Thank you,
Thank you,
Thank you for your beautiful presence,
For being here.
And I hope you enjoy and learn to enjoy Feeling your feelings.
So that you don't have to do all these other things to avoid the feelings,
You can just sit here,
Because a lot of the time the feelings don't even last that long.
Studies have shown that cravings,
For example,
Addictive cravings,
They last somewhere between 90 seconds to 12 minutes.
So if we can just sit here and feel our feelings and relax and release.
It's like a wave.
It comes up.
Crests and then it subsides and it will go away and then we don't need to do all these other things.
We can just sit here and go,
Oh,
Actually,
Everything's all right.
And then get back on with our day without having to have all these coping mechanisms.
Thank you so much for being here.
Lots of love and many blessings.
