Emotional suffering is a phase all of us humans have gone through or will go through at some point in our lives.
Going through life with all the responsibilities on our shoulders and the ups and downs life has to offer, it is inevitable that we suffer emotionally. Being a natural order doesn’t mean we have to put up with it. In this article, I will throw more light on how to hack the illusion of emotional suffering and understand the root of it in order to get to the roots so we can stop putting bandaids on bullet wounds.
What is emotional suffering?
Emotional suffering is a state of overwhelming our nervous system experiences that causes incredible amounts of pain which could be induced by someone else’s non-physical actions or ours. It could be as a result of overbearing responsibilities as a parent or family member, overtasking jobs, financial stress – you name it.
Where does emotional suffering live?
Emotional suffering lives in the body and because it lives in our body, we go out of the way to stop it.
Why do we suffer emotionally?
When we look at suffering, we look at pain. Our soul is a pure part of us that came into this planet and over time we’ve used different events that played out in our lives to build templates over our soul. So now we feel and identify with the templates and conditioning more than the essence of who we are and our true nature; our soul.
What are some of the things we do to stop emotional suffering?
We try to get out of emotional suffering by distracting ourselves. And we often do this by either going on social media, overeating or over-exercising. We may even find ourselves in codependent relationships. The list goes on forever!
Distracting ourselves doesn’t mean the pain is slowly going away. It only numbs the pain only for it to come back at a later time. Distracting ourselves is like running away. And running from the feeling doesn’t help us heal, it intensifies and magnifies the level of suffering.
How can I break free from emotional suffering?
Witness the arising.
When you’re going through an experience of emotional suffering, first and foremost understand that it is safe to feel emotional suffering. Allow yourself to feel that feeling. But Acknowledging the feeling doesn’t entail identifying with it.
The right thing to do is what I call, witnessing the arising. I use the word witness intentionally because we’re not sinking into it, but being with it.
You are to be with the emotionality and not get lost in it. So as the energy or sensation comes up we are to just witness it not identify with it. There is a huge difference between observation and identification. When we let our bodies feel the emotions, we set our paths to healing. But the second we identify with it we become it and the path to healing cannot be laid out.
Know the capacity of your body.
The amount of pain our bodies can feel is so much greater than what our minds think. If our mind and the body were placed on a pain capacity scale of one to ten, ten is the maximum our bodies can feel while the mind cannot take on anymore past the five-point mark.
So shut out your mind when it comes to pain and open up your body’s capacity to feel. This can be done through the breath. The more we breathe spaciousness into the body the more we can handle the pain.
Breathwork
Breathwork shows us the templates that are broken. It fishes out the problem and guides us to the templates that we desire. When we are in that deeply immersed breathwork space, it is really easy to see what’s for us and what isn’t. So in that space, we get to choose.
Constantly listen to your body because it knows what’s best for you. Your body is so incredibly wise. And if your mind doesn’t know what templates to choose, do the breath, get into the body and let your body choose. What is the next chapter for me? What is the next cut?
It’s amazing when I ask people, what do you actually want? There’s this deer in the headlights look because we haven’t been given the permission to actually choose, own and cultivate what we want. So we live a life of probability, of whatever is possible. Now it’s time to choose. Use the power of your breath to guide you.
Curious what breathwork pattern can change those templates and bring you into a space where you can choose and break free from emotional suffering? Download the Pause Breathwork app. There is a free 14 day trial for new users. We have a lot of resources that have helped thousands and you can be the next!
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