Suppressing And Living Emotions

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

In recent years, psychology has been enriched with techniques for the study of the nature of consciousness, ego, thoughts, emotions. More and more advanced thinkers are coming to the realization that consciousness is the basis of everything, and that the nature of reality is subjective.

Techniques for understanding the nature of oneself seep into the offices of psychologists - and naturally! By limiting ourselves to the context of the ego, we will always dangle within the causal effects that stem from childhood. Deep self-exploration aimed at knowing the true nature of oneself is a liberating practical method that will complement the arsenal of every psychologist in the future.

The discovery of the formless witnessing consciousness that we are is often accompanied by a lack of understanding where to “cram” our ego. What do I have now, not one, but two "I's"? What "I" what? An in-depth understanding, honed over the years, smoothes out roughness and eliminates paradoxes.

From the standpoint of a separate “I” looking at the world through the eyes of the beholder, dissociation with emotions is destructive. Sometimes I watch colleagues, after hearing about Buddhism, try to integrate distancing from emotions into practical work. But this superficial approach exacerbates the patient's inner division. If distancing comes from a firm belief that emotions are an integral part of us, a person will inevitably feel that by rejecting emotions, he is rejecting himself. Such a technique will inevitably exacerbate the practitioner's sense of selective identification. Negative emotions will be perceived as unacceptable and immediately rejected. Positive ones, on the contrary, are accepted and welcomed. This is suppression "under the guise" of high truths.

The living of emotions, on the contrary, can be carried out both from the position of a separate “I”, preceding the realization of our true nature, and from the position of an integrated consciousness. Living the emotions fully, rather than watching them cautiously, is a healthy practice.

To fully experience an emotion, you need to “invite it to enter” your inner space. The element of conscious invitation is very important: we usually wake up when the emotion is already there, but we can begin to suppress the unpleasant feeling out of habit. By inviting emotion into our space, letting her know that she is a welcome guest and can stay as long as she wants, we open up to the present moment and fully participate in the dance of life.

Without a mental comment, emotion is unarmed. Over time, it loses its charge generated by thought, and takes on the outlines of a subtle bodily sensation, comparable, for example, to the neutral sensation of the wrist, or the middle toe of the right foot.

We may feel that by reducing emotions to the level of bodily sensations, we are “betraying” or “ignoring” some of the “inner truth” that emotion communicates to us. As we explore deeper, we will nevertheless notice that what we call “inner truth” is nothing more than a polished program that emotion tries to run. This program and many others are acquired by us throughout life and have nothing to do with who we really are. Programs are held in place by belief. For example, I may be deeply convinced that I am incompetent. When working with a patient who questions my worth, I may get irritated. The task of irritation is to push me to assert my importance in front of the patient. I can start to be clever, make a “wise” face, or pour out streams of love on the interlocutor, thus devaluing the patient's statement. All of the above actions, including the streams of love, will be aimed at protecting your competence: first of all, in front of yourself - the retinue of the thoughts of the personality, which is illusory. While working out programs can be useful at a certain stage of development, the realization that no program describes our essence a priori is certainly more useful.