Hello Beautiful Souls,

There are several steps to becoming comfortable with our uncomfortable emotions – and many ways to go about it!

First, we need to feel safe enough to even start. If we’re feeling really threatened, it’s hard to want to do anything other than defend or protect. So it you’re interested in this topic, congratulations, you’re already in a good place – you feel safe enough to even consider this! Bravo!

Next, we need to become more aware of our emotions. This is tough for most of us, because most of us have been trained to be nice little boys and girls and repress everything that wasn’t nice. When we start noticing what we’re repressing, alarm bells go off. ‘I’m not doing what I’m supposed to do to stay in the tribe! Danger! Danger!” (This is where safety comes in very handy.)

And then we need to be willing to feel them… which requires a LOT of safety as well as the ability to ground ourselves, or resource ourselves – anything that helps us stay bigger than our emotions so that we don’t get lost and overwhelmed in them.

Next, we need to be willing and able to feel them long enough to let the charge release. This is especially challenging, because in order for it to release the emotion needs to fully unfold, and it can feel 10 times bigger than it did before… the anger, fear, shame or whatever can feel HUGE during this part. (Resourcing so we don’t get overwhelmed is crucial, and most of us won’t let ourselves do this until we have a strong sense that we’re ready – even if we don’t know what we’re ready for!) This part can be done in a variety of ways: sitting in a stillness meditation, speaking them out, singing or chanting their resonance, dancing or moving our bodies to them, etc..

I haven‘t been doing a moving practice for a long time, and I’ve started recently with amazing results! Moving with the pain, the anger, the sadness, the jealousy, etc. is helping me immensely! I’m finding a whole new level of comfort in the discomfort. I’m not sure yet why this piece is so important, and it’s helping me a lot! I suspect it’s because it’s touching parts of me that sitting doesn’t do… I’m accessing aspects that my other practices don’t allow so easily.

The Dancing Your Emotions Practice:

So, if you’ve done enough of the initial steps to feel grounded, then I invite you to do a movement practice with your uncomfortable emotions. Next time you feel angry, ashamed, etc., let your body move to the emotion. You can even throw on a song that mirrors the emotion for extra punch. In either case, let the emotion move through your body… and let the movement help you get more comfortable with the discomfort.

Plus, you may find, like me, that it’s just fun to shake my fists, beat pillows and generally throw a tantrum when I’m angry!

When you’ve moved to the emotion as much as you like, I find it’s helpful to fully release and ground again by ending the practice with a calm and flowing song, or a sensual or happy song.

Enjoy Letting It All Hang Out,
Eléna