Emotions exist for a reason and that reason is to guide us along in our inward journeys. Our bodies are aware that emotional guidance exists, but our minds are often unconscious of it. There is so much that we can learn about ourselves and there is so much creative energy that we can unleash into the world if we can be in tune with what we feel in our gut, what our instinct tells us, what our emotions are pointing towards. All it takes is the willingness to respect it, to accept its guidance and live in accordance with it. Join Rebecca Victor as she shares some stories that illustrate the power of this concept.
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Listen to the podcast here:
Let The Guiding Energy Flow: Acknowledging The Role Of Emotional Guidance In The Inward Journey
Thank you for joining me. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you’ll share your ideas and thoughts after we’re through so I can learn what you’re thinking, what information you’re wanting to know or the ideas that you have that will add to what it is that we are co-creating. That co-creation of shared ideas and thoughts that will A, enable us each to get clear about what’s important to us and B, give us greater exposure to ideas that will help us see something in a different way, that in doing so is more gratifying and more affirming.
Thank you if you have been a reader that’s been helping to cultivate this, or if you’re brand new, I welcome you. We’re talking about this idea through this whole series as, what is it to live from the inside out? We’ve had a good time talking about the idea of the body, mind, spirit. We highlighted that a bit. We talked about some principles that are important when we’re looking inward, the ability to be willing and open, the ability to surrender, to let go of old things that don’t serve us, the ability to have compassion, to trust and to be in integrity with ourselves. Part of what happens when we’re making this inward journey is that we get confused on how do we know if what we’re hearing or paying attention to is right for us?
With all the ideas that are going on out there, and all the information that’s coming out that had been made readily available for people to learn, we pause and we say, “What am I supposed to look at? How am I supposed to know if this process is right for me, this journey?” Especially if you find that you are questioning or challenging what you’ve grown up learning, and you’re realizing that it’s not serving who you are anymore. You’re struggling with the old ideas of staying true to them or the fear of, “If I let go into something else, at least this is tried and true but these new ideas, who knows where I’ll go with them? How do I know if they’re offering me anything that’s going to be helpful or harmful?”
A Guiding Energy
That’s a legitimate question. One way that we can do that is to learn to pay attention to how we are feeling as we are moving through this process, this inward journey. To start to pay attention to when our thoughts make us feel better or when our thoughts cause us to feel worse, more angst, more sadness, more confusion, more frustration, or are they causing us to feel a greater sense of peace, ease, joy and happiness. Emotions are an important tool that we have as human beings that enable us to become aware of the fact like Einstein said, “Everything is energy. Human beings are energy. Our bodies are energy. The thoughts we think are energy.” That energy vibrates, it moves.
I don’t know about any of you out there but I remember the first time I saw the movement of sound on an oscillating machine and could see the difference. As I was listening to a string on a piano being thumped, I could watch what the sound was doing. I could notice the higher the wave or the lower or the wider, the farther apart they are, the tighter they are. I would look or watch somebody put salt on a table and they would have a sound underneath that table and you’d watch the granules of salt start to shift, adjust and move their ways into particular patterns.
When we move in ways that are affirmative, our bodies respond in healthier ways. Click To TweetLike sound, our emotions are energy. They have a vibration to them. We are aware of this but might not necessarily be consciously aware that we’re aware of it. We’ll say things like, “I feel sluggish or I feel light as a bird. I feel light as a feather.” Those are usually feelings of being happy, that light as a feather. It’s usually somebody describing they’re feeling good, happy and easy. Somebody is sluggish, “I’m dragging. I feel like I’m walking through molasses.” That’s usually the descriptor of someone who is struggling, they said it right there. They’re maybe feeling discontented, uncertain, nervous but nervous in a way that’s anticipating something that’s not going to go well. There’s a hesitancy, some fear. That feeling is experienced differently in the body.
We identify it as so by the words that we use. Our emotions have vibration. Each emotion has a frequency that it vibrates at. When we’re in that state of depression, our body is vibrating – that emotion is a vibration that is slow and it feels dense, thick, cumbersome, hard to move and sluggish. As we begin to move out of depression, let’s say we move into anger. All of a sudden, out of that anger, the sluggishness is gone. The feeling of density, you might have some of it but it’s shifted somehow. That feeling of anger often is an active type of an emotion. It’s an active frequency. It’s higher up on the frequency level of vibration. As we move up out of anger into frustration, all of a sudden, we’ve taken it out of the intensity of the anger into something a little lighter. Our body feels different. How we sit, move and look at things is different.
If we move out of frustration and we move into, “I’m not feeling frustrated like I was but I’m a little apprehensive, but I’m okay.” That’s a different feeling. You can even feel it as you speak it. When I speak it, it’s like, “It feels a little lighter. I go from feeling okay to I’m feeling good. It’s nice to feel good. There’s a lightness in me.” I move up and I’m like, “Not only am I feeling good but I’m feeling great. I’m feeling happy, joyful and peaceful.” That’s an experience of a lightness in the vibration of that emotion.
Why do I share this with you? This emotional scale, which I found valuable when it was introduced to me years ago. A friend of mine shared it. It was from a program that they went to by Abraham Hicks. In this program, they were talking about an emotional scale. What they were sharing was the idea that when we are thinking something or we’re taking action in some way, if that action or that thought causes us to feel heavier than we were or more down, depressed or sluggish than we were when we started. We’re knowing that thought or that action is a thought or an action that is lower than where we were but it’s not necessarily in service to our moving into a more positive direction.
When we feel in a space, we start to engage in thoughts that feel lighter, happier and better, then we’re moving in the direction of thinking in ways that are affirming to who we are. They’re affirming to the things that matter to us. When we are moving in ways that are affirmative, they have a better feeling in our body. Our bodies respond in healthier ways. There are studies that have gone on and I was looking at one, it’s a study that they did on the power of positive psychology, positive thinking. They did note significant differences when people chose to move their mindset to a more positive-oriented thought or they started to take action that when they took it, it felt better. It had a direct, positive response on the body. This in turn over a period of time of years meant that they also lived happier, healthier and longer lives.
Emotional Guidance: Thoughts like feelings, especially when they’re merged, are powerful. They are a creative force. They have a frequency of their own.
Emotions And The Inward Journey
What does this have to do with the inward journey? The inward journey, when we start moving within sometimes there’s this tendency to think that we’re going to take a look at all the things that we don’t do well. For many of us, we want to know and learn but we’re uncomfortable with the fact that we might discover something about ourselves we’re not sure of. We might have reinforced something within ourselves that we’ve been fighting against. There’s that hesitancy because we’re not sure. It’s like, “How can I go within and learn so that my learning is in service to my highest good, to my happiness, to my wellbeing?”
One way that we can do that is by paying attention to the feelings that we are having as we go along our day. It’s almost like a constant awareness and observation. How am I feeling as I make this choice? If I’m making this choice and I’m feeling a sense of being weighed down, then I might want to pause a minute and explore how I can shift that action so that I feel better about taking it. I might decide not to take that action at all or I might add something else to it to make it better. When we do the inward journey, we become conscious and aware more and more of our thoughts and how they tie into our actions, and how powerful they are. Thoughts, like feelings, especially when they’re merged, are powerful. They’re a creative force. They have a frequency of their own.
We get to decide what we want to put in motion as we start to become aware of who we are, what it is that we’re wanting and how it is that we want to live in the world. How it is that we want to honor who we are so that we can in turn honor others? Part of that is paying attention. Is what I’m thinking helping me to feel better? Is it helping me to feel worse? Is it helping me to feel confident, disconnected or unsure? When I think about this journey of going from emotions that feel on a frequency low and sluggish to ones that are high, light and easy, I question them like, “Can it be that simple to pay attention to my feelings and that my feelings are indicating to me whether or not what I’m doing is in service to me?”
Yes, because if it’s in service to me, it’s going to feel good. This is that idea of being in service to me and knowing that as I’m doing that, there’s no intention to hurt another soul, to dismiss or take away from anybody in order for me to achieve whatever I’m setting up. To do that would be a low-lying energy. It would be uncomfortable and sad to think that I would have to take it from someone else in order for me to thrive. That does not work for me. It’s the idea that I can trust that it’s okay for me to look towards that which feels better in my life and thinking so that I can choose happiness. It is okay for me and my journey inward to embrace the joy of my being so that I can experience it in my life, in my relationships and in my decisions.
For me to do that, I have to start paying attention to all the different feelings that arise up for me as a human being. The emotions that cause me to wonder about myself. I was dealing with a situation. I’ve done a lot of my own personal growth and work and I’ve done it on my own and I’ve done it with the guidance of professionals and wise teachers. What I have learned is that in my growth, there are times that things arise that I’m at choice of whether I want to focus on the negative or on the positive. There had been a long time in my life where the question was, “What did I do wrong?” If something came up that wasn’t quite right or something was showing up on my life that wasn’t quite working, all of a sudden, the question was, “What did I do wrong? How did I mess it up?” Even in that question, I’m setting myself up for an answer that isn’t life enhancing and yet it wasn’t a question I asked myself all the time.
Pay attention to your emotions. Give yourself the opportunity to discover the depth and profoundness of who you are. Click To TweetI woke up in an odd space. It wasn’t like my mind was there. There was something happening that I couldn’t quite understand. There was an awkwardness in my body. There was a sense of tension. I’m like, “What is happening here?” There wasn’t any emotion per se. Somehow in a part of my being, in my body there was a disconnect. There was a part of me that knew that this disconnect I was feeling was a part of some growing that was happening for me because we all grow on many levels. We have our conscious mind, the heart, the intuition. People talk about the energetic body, the auric field, all these things that my limited knowledge in says, “I don’t know all the details but it’s fascinating me to realize how complex we are as beings.”
I knew on some level something was shifting within me but my practiced mind kept trying to find out what was wrong. “What’s wrong? What’s happening? What do I need to change to make it better?” All of a sudden as I was doing my morning special time. I had tried to meditate and I fell asleep twice in my meditation. I’m like, “What is going on? I couldn’t even do the meditation.” It was a trip. I started to journal. As I was journaling, I found myself getting physiologically depressed immediately. It was an immediate sense of loss. It hit me at such a depth that I’m sitting there and I’m watching how I’m playing, in my mind, there was this observer. We’ll talk about this witness that we have, our silent observer.
I’m watching myself moving through this emotion where it’s tearing me up inside. I’m watching my mind go, “I can play the realm of what is wrong or I can choose a new thought.” All of a sudden, it was like, “I don’t have to stay in the realm that something is wrong here. In fact, rather than being wrong, maybe something right is happening but it doesn’t feel good yet.” I’m trying to think of a time where we have to take a passage from one place to another and in that moment, there’s that level of uncertainty until we get to the other side or a discomfort. I can think differently about what’s happening because the way I’m going was a spiral of downward negative thought all beginning with what’s wrong with me because there’s an uncomfortable thing that’s going on in my body. Something was happening but it wasn’t because something was wrong.
I knew on some level there was something else. I said, “I’m going to know that rather than there being something wrong, I’m going to ask what is right that’s happening within me? What is seeking to emerge in me that has to break out of this little cocoon or this little shell that’s uncomfortable in order to become bigger, to become something more, to move beyond the fear and the doubt of the unknown into the comfort of unknown or not? I will have what I need to take the steps that I have to take to be okay.”
As I began to make that subtle shift in the question, instead of, “What’s wrong?” to, “What is it that’s right that is trying to emerge here?” All of a sudden, the spiral down stopped and the dense heavy stopped. There was a lighter feeling. I said, “I’m onto something here. I’m going to play with that question some more. That feels good.” I’ve been doing a lot of wonderful things. I’m going to trust that this is all part of that. The fact that maybe this scary stuff showing up isn’t that I’m failing but it has come to the surface for me to see it and recognize it for what it is, let it go, work through it, move through it.
If I was not connected to my emotions then my mind would have gone logically saying there must be something wrong because if there weren’t, you would be feeling better. Assuming that a healthy body always feels 100% wonderful. My body has gone through spurts of feeling wonderful to crappy. It’s fluctuated. Instead of creating a mental construct that said there’s only one way for me to identify what health is and what my wellbeing is, it’s letting go of the mind’s role and saying, “What can I use to help me shift?” It was paying attention to it. Something I was saying that when I said it, I felt better. In the moment I felt better was the moment I could sit up and go, “Let me play with another thought that can help make me feel better in this scenario.”
Emotional Guidance: The inward journey will often have us become aware of the things that aren’t working, not because we’re failing, but because we’re asking for more.
Before I knew it, even though my body was continuing this experience, whatever this was, instead of being something to resist or push against or find something wrong with, I let it be and honored it for whatever reason. I know within me there are lots of things happening in my growing. They’re happening on a lot of different levels. I can feel some of those different levels.
I respect what it is that I’m sensing, knowing and feeling. Emotions are an aspect of what it is to be human, that for me I am respecting and I’m learning about. I’m paying attention to, as my emotions guide me. They’re helping me to learn what I’m looking at. Is what I’m thinking something that’s making me feel better? If it’s not, I’m going to shift it because I have found that as I feel better, I am open and capable of much more, the things that I thrive in. I can bring to my life and to the world new ideas, new possibilities and new experiences. This gift of emotions is a powerful one for us. When we’re working this journey inward, the journey will have us often become aware of the things that aren’t working. Not because we’re failing but because we’re asking for more. When we’re on this journey asking for more then we can’t help but see the areas where what we’re seeking, we’ve got thoughts that are blocking that.
It’s like what I mentioned in a different episode, when we begin to become aware of parts of our life, thinking and the spiritual nature of who we are, there’s a light that emanates from within us and all of a sudden that light is shining. If we have ideas about ourselves that limit us, that keep us boxed in, that keep us thinking that we’re less or that we need to be what we don’t want to be. Those are often beliefs that are vibrationally dense, that light won’t shine through. When we see the shadows that are cast by those, that’s us becoming aware of that internal part of us that’s hearing the questions that we have that says, “I want to know more. I want to be more. I want to experience more.” It’s like, “Here you go.”
All of a sudden, there’s that belief that gets in the way but the belief is as real as we make it or not. We’ll talk about that in another time. As you’re making this journey, especially when you’re wondering what you believe in, “What do I know? How do I know what’s right for me?” Start paying attention not only to what your mind says but pay attention to your heart, your emotions, your feelings. Pay attention to the guidance of your inner being, your inner wisdom, that intuition, your gut, however you want to define it. Pay attention to your body. How’s it feeling? In your body it all works together. Give yourself that opportunity to discover the depth and that profoundness of who you are as this magnificent human being that we all are, learning to live and to thrive and to experience more of what it means for us to be human because there’s a lot to it that we get to discover if we’re willing to turn within and give ourselves permission to do that.
I would love your feedback on how you use emotions or anything else that you’ve read or was piqued within you as you were reading. I truly believe that we’re in this together, we’re learning and growing. It could be that you have the words that someone out there is needing to hear as you’re sharing your story. In sharing, that’s what I want to hear is your story. I’ll be having guests and they’ll be sharing their stories of the inward journey and how it’s reflecting in their lives. It’ll be theirs. It’s not about advice-giving. It’s about sharing a story, an idea of how you’ve been impacted or your thoughts.
If you’d like to do that, we’d love to hear. Got any great ideas? I’d love those too, so we can make this about serving you. I hope that you have a great day. I hope you have fun exploring your feelings, learning more about them because they’re fascinating. If you’re interested in knowing this idea about the emotional scale, you can look up Emotional Scale. It should have that from Abraham Hicks. That might offer you an idea of what is meant. There’s so much great information out there for us because of the equipment that scientists have, to be able to show us what many people knew long before there was equipment to prove it. Have a great day. Always, here’s to your life.