Are You Being Emotionally Manipulated?

So many people are caught up in a self-perpetuating emotional spin cycle now, pulled in many directions to feel intensely upset about this or that. When we fall into these emotional states we are easily manipulated and our emotions become the fodder to perpetuate more negativity in the world. This meditation will help you find compassion and understanding for yourself and for those you may have viewed as adversaries. In doing so, you set yourself free from being an emotional pawn and gain greater sense of balance and calm control.

Transcript

Recently I've noticed a great deal of hyped up turmoil and conflict in the world.

I'll even hear certain commenters make comments like,

If you're not outraged at this,

And other commentators are saying,

Well if you're not outraged at that,

There's always a consequence for not being outraged.

What I've observed about that is it causes us to fall into a state of emotional manipulation where we are easily manipulated because we are not in a balanced emotional state ourselves.

I'd like to share a couple of stories and quotes that can help us dig into this before we do a meditation to really come to a place of great inner emotional peace,

Harmony,

And balance so that we are not preyed upon emotionally.

There is a old legend attributed to the Cherokee people,

And it's one many of you have heard before,

But there are different versions,

And I think if we tell the full story,

Both versions,

We probably will arrive at a better understanding of ourselves.

In a nutshell,

The first version,

Or the first part of the legend,

Is that there was an old Cherokee chief teaching his grandson about life.

He said,

A fight is going on inside me,

A fight between two wolves.

The dark wolf is evil.

He is anger,

Envy,

Sorrow,

Regret,

Greed,

Arrogance,

Self-pity,

Guilt,

Resentment,

And so on and so on,

All the way through pretty much ego.

He continued,

The light wolf is good.

He is joy,

Peace,

Love,

Hope,

Serenity,

Humility,

Kindness,

Benevolence,

Empathy,

Generosity,

Compassion,

And faith.

The same fight is going on inside you,

Grandson,

And inside of every other person on the face of this earth.

The grandson ponders this for a moment and then asked,

Grandfather,

Which wolf will win?

The old Cherokee smiled and simply said,

The one you feed.

Now,

That's pretty profound in and of itself,

But if we take the legend a little bit further,

In some of the other ways it's told,

It continues.

The grandfather replied,

If you feed them right,

They both win.

You see,

If I only choose to feed the light wolf,

The dark wolf will be hiding around every corner,

Waiting for me to become distracted or weak and jump to get the attention he craves.

He will always be angry and always will fight the light wolf,

But if I acknowledge the dark wolf,

He is happy and the light wolf is happy and we all win.

The dark wolf has many qualities such as tenacity,

Courage,

Fearlessness,

Strength,

And strategic thinking,

And I have need of those qualities at times.

These are things that the light wolf lacks,

But the light wolf has compassion,

Caring,

Strength,

And the ability to recognize what is in the interest of all.

You see,

Grandson,

The light wolf needs the dark wolf at his side.

To feed only one would starve the other and they will become uncomfortable.

I'm sorry,

Become uncontrollable.

To feed and care for both means that they will serve you well and do nothing that is not part of something greater,

Something good,

And something uplifting of life.

Feed them both and there will be no more internal struggle for your attention,

And when there is no battle inside,

You can listen to the voices of deeper knowing that will guide you in choosing what is right in every circumstance.

So I actually like that one,

But I'd like to back up a little bit.

When we talk about the two wolves,

When the so-called dark wolf is trying to get attention,

It often is those negative characteristics and we exhibit those negative characteristics in our behavior,

And there is a concept of something called loosh,

L-O-O-S-H.

Loosh is like a self-perpetuating negative feedback loop of negative emotions.

Loosh can be fed by arrogance,

Envy,

Uncontrolled anger,

Those sorts of emotions,

Self-pity.

Now I'm not going to go too far down this part of the loosh story,

But there is a theory in esoteric realms that there are energies and entities that feed off negativity and loosh and continue to perpetuate more and more.

If they're fed lots of loosh,

These entities and energies will perpetuate more negativity,

Strife,

Discord on the planet.

And suffice it to say,

Whether you think of these entities as entities or just self-perpetuating negativity,

It definitely has an effect.

And I think we've been seeing and witnessing much of that effect in the world today.

So what do we do about it?

Well,

We have all of these parts of us within ourselves.

We have the uplifted higher consciousness,

And we have the ability to slip into lower vibe emotional states.

I think one of the best things I ever heard that has always stuck with me is a quote from the character Atticus Finch in the movie and the book To Kill a Mockingbird.

And Atticus was teaching his young daughter,

And he said to his daughter,

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view,

Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

Another way of saying that in a nutshell is put yourself in someone else's shoes.

But I kind of like this quote a little better.

Actually,

Climb inside their being,

Their skin,

Their mind,

And think about what their experience has been like.

We never know what kinds of pains,

Traumas,

Challenges someone goes through in life.

Growing up,

Even in adulthood.

And when they exhibit negative behavior,

Of course,

We are likely to judge them,

Dislike them,

Sometimes throw a lot of shade and anger their way.

But if we can really put ourselves into someone else's skin and really think about what they've been through and see things from their perspective,

It's not about excusing any kind of negative behavior,

But it is about going,

Who am I to judge?

Who am I to judge?

I have those same characteristics and qualities that I exhibit at times too.

And judge not lest ye be judged.

I'd rather not get judged harshly.

So I want to do a couple of exercises that are going to help us release all this negative energy that is so prevalent in the world today.

Come to a state of balance and start to really see ourselves and others through the eyes of love,

Compassion,

And understanding.

The first thing I want to do is a simple,

Almost childlike breathing exercise that is so good for releasing excess energy.

This breathing exercise is often referred to as a lion's breath.

It involves a big,

Deep belly breath in to the belly and into the negative mindset,

Thoughts,

Emotions,

And then a big stick your tongue out,

Roar like a lion and let it go.

It kind of looks like this and sounds like this.

Sticking the tongue out,

Signing it out,

Roaring it out.

So as we do that,

And before we do that,

I want you to think about someone in this world for whom you have a lot of animosity.

It could be someone you know personally,

It could be a celebrity,

A political figure,

Any of the above.

Someone for whom you felt a great deal of animosity and someone who you find to be emotionally triggering.

In just a moment,

We're going to do three rounds of lion's breath.

And when we do that,

The breath,

The energy,

The emotion we're releasing on each exhale,

We are going to have the intention to send it to God,

To the higher consciousness that's much greater than our human existence and just let that energy be released and turned into something positive.

So once you've got your triggering,

Emotionally triggering person in mind,

I want you to think of where you feel negativity in your body when you think about that person.

When you're ready,

Empty all the air from your lungs.

Take a big deep belly breath in and send that inhale to the negativity in the body and lion's breath,

Sigh it out.

Let's do that again.

Big,

Deep belly breath in.

Send the inhale to wherever the negativity is.

Stick the tongue out,

Lion's breath,

Sigh it out.

One more powerful,

The strongest one yet.

Big breath in,

Tongue out,

Let it all go to God.

Beautiful.

Now,

Letting it go and sending it to a positive place so that it doesn't become loose is a very powerful thing to do.

More powerful than we often realize when we're in our very materialist mindset.

I'd like to share another very simple breathing exercise that will also help to bring us to a state of balance.

It's one I do all the time.

It's called alternate nostril breathing.

Many of you have done it before.

We will alternate blocking the right nostril with the right thumb,

Left nostril with the right index finger.

We'll just go back and forth just for probably three rounds.

This breathing exercise is excellent for balancing our emotions,

Balancing the yin and the yang energies in us and just bringing us to a state of center grounding calm peace.

So let's begin by using the right thumb to block the right nostril.

Empty all the air from your lungs.

We will breathe in through the nose for a count of four on the left.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold the breath in just for a second.

Plug the right nostril,

I'm sorry,

Plug the left nostril with the right index finger and exhale through the right nostril.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the right nostril.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold briefly.

Plug the right nostril,

Exhale through the left.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale left nostril.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold briefly.

Plug the left nostril,

Exhale right.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale right nostril.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold.

Plug the right nostril,

Exhale left.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Final round.

Breath in through the left.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold.

Plug the left nostril,

Exhale right.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale right.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold.

Plug the right nostril and final exhale through the left.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Beautiful.

I invite you to close your eyes now.

And we are going to go into a meditation that helps us find a lot of compassion and understanding.

Once again,

Thinking about that person for whom you felt animosity before,

Maybe currently are feeling some animosity towards.

And just remembering we are all here having the human experience.

We have all had love and compassion offered to us at times.

And we've all experienced anger,

Even hatred,

Unkindness.

We've all been unkind as well.

Just remembering that beautiful quote,

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view,

Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

I invite you to think about that person that is emotionally triggering,

Only we're not going to think of them with the ego or judgment.

I'm going to ask that the higher part of you,

The soul,

The part of you that is beyond emotion,

Beyond judgment,

That the soul of you gives you a higher perspective on this person and a better understanding of this person,

Not asking to excuse any of their behavior.

And in this moment,

You are able to sense and feel and see things through the other person's lived experience.

In essence,

Walking around in their skin just for a moment to see what it feels like.

Perhaps you have viewed the other person as very mean or unkind or self-centered.

No excuse at all,

But perhaps that person was raised in a family that put immense pressure on them,

And they weren't shown love,

Grace,

Compassion,

And understanding,

And therefore don't know how to extend that to the rest of the world.

I'm going to ask that your higher self show you a little bit about why the other person might exhibit negative behaviors.

Again,

Not to excuse,

Just so that you can find shared compassion.

Shared because you realize you are human and imperfect as well.

And I ask that your higher self point out some commonalities that you both have,

You and this other person.

Good traits that you might both have,

Or good interests.

And I ask that your higher self point out some shared challenges or what we might call flaws,

Imperfections that you both might have.

For the final part of this meditation,

For my visual folks,

Just imagine the visuals of what I described.

And if you're less visual in meditation,

Simply imagine the feeling of what I described.

Imagine that you and this person for whom you felt animosity are together in a room alone.

No one else,

Just the two of you.

And you might feel the triggering,

The frustration.

And you look at this other person,

And this person is holding a mirror towards you,

And you can see your reflection in this mirror.

And you may have a scowl on your face or some other distress or frustration.

But you look down at yourself and you are holding a mirror at this person aimed towards the other person.

And at first,

There may be negative emotional expressions.

But after a moment,

There's a little bit of a suppressed smile that can't help but turn into a little bit of a giggle.

And I invite you to imagine that in a moment,

After realizing you're both very common beneath the surface,

You both have things in common,

That you both set the mirrors down.

And up to you,

Handshake or hug,

Either one.

This is not to excuse any negative,

Unkind behavior on anyone's part.

But it is an ability and opportunity to release judgment.

In this meditation,

Not only are you extending some compassion and understanding towards the other person,

But vitally,

You are extending compassion and understanding towards yourself.

When we are kind and gracious with ourselves,

So much easier to be kind and gracious with others.

When you're ready,

I invite you to open your eyes.

The resounding message I keep sensing in my own meditations,

Journaling,

Prayer time,

Is that beneath the surface,

We all as humans have so much more in common than not.

And we forget that so easily.

We can look at the external differences and go,

Well,

That person has that set of spiritual beliefs.

And therefore,

I want to cancel them.

Or that person has those political beliefs.

And therefore,

I want to cancel them.

Yet beneath all that,

We all,

For the most part,

Deep down,

Want to be loved and to give love.

We want to be understood and expressed.

We want to experience joy and abundance.

We can look towards what's beneath the surface and find those commonalities.

Wow.

It's much more difficult to be emotionally manipulated or to put negative loosh out there that can be fed off and perpetuated.

May you show kindness,

Kindness and compassion to yourself,

Kindness and compassion to others,

Particularly those who are challenging.

And as we do that,

Oh,

Peace,

Much better place to live.

I look forward to our next meditation together.

Until next time.