Emotions and Stillness

There is a place for expressing anger and bitterness. Each of us has to find our own balance to not allow these valid emotions to run our lives or affect our health and well being or cause harm to others, while at the same time, to express these emotions freely as long as we need to, in order to find greater freedom in future.

Suppressing our emotions would mean denying our humanity and thus causing resentment to fester over time. To experience healing from abuse and manipulation by society and religion, we all need safe ways to ventilate and express our emotions. Being in a community of fellow survivors where people support one another instead of trying to fix one another is one such way, and is a step towards finding healing. One such community I have visited and can recommend is David Hayward's forum.

Being still and finding time to meditate on life's experiences is another safe way of dealing with anger and bitterness. It involves accepting all our emotions wholeheartedly without making any value judgment on whether they are right or wrong. By accepting our humanity, we give ourselves permission to feel what we need to feel, and eventually heal from the inside out.

I am learning that compassion involves being involved in another person's suffering too. In order to empathise with others, we need to stay in touch with our feelings first and not deny our feelings. Being human, no one is immune to feelings of hurt and abuse, and we all have the capacity to put ourselves in the shoes of another, and show sensitivity and understanding.

On a similar note, I think the verse "Be still and know I am God" can mean be still and know I am love; I am peace; I am non judgement; I am one with others, both in joy and in sorrow, both in bliss and in suffering. Feelings are that which makes us human and unites us as one humanity. Contrary to popular belief, expressing feelings does not make us look weak because it can forge a stronger bond between people who share similar challenges and support one another with compassion and understanding.