Negative emotions are a call for awareness.
We've been told that negative emotions are bad.
We should ignore them.
That they will "kill us." But this isn't true.
Negative emotions are just like physical pain. When you have physical pain our body, calls for awareness.
We are sure if we burned our hand on the stove that we wouldn't pretend we didn't feel any pain... then try not to look at our hand... and then if all else fails just take a bunch of pain killers to numb the pain.
We would pay attention to our pain... take immediate action to clean our wound... and the tend to it each day until it is healed. And then... once it's healed... we would probably forget about it.
That's the same thing that we must do with negative emotions.
Instead of repressing them.... instead of pushing them down... instead of ignoring them and then taking meds to pretend they aren't there.
They are asking us to pay attention.
To clean them out. Then help them heal... and then to let the pain go.
Perhaps one of the most profound human skills is that of being able to feel a negative emotion and let it pass through you... rather than resisting it. When we do this... we allow all parts of ourselves to be seen...heard and healed.
When we allow negative emotions to pass through us... they dissipate. And then... we can start doing the work of finding out why they were there in the first place... and work towards healing the wounds of dissociation.
Not so we can keep hurting ourselves... but so that we can heal the dissociation that caused the negative emotions... and just like once our burned hand is healed... we let it go... and don't think about it.
If we were very physically hurt as a child... I'm sure you haven't spent the last 10/20/30/40 years ruminating about our broken arm when we were 6. We've moved on.
Because it's healed.
The same thing must happen for our emotions.
That is what Claiming our Recovery Purpose is all about.
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