Robin Vinge

Naturopathic Medicine

water

The Emotional Side of Healing

By

One of the most important things that you can do if you are not well currently is to create a well being list. Make a list of all the things that bring you joy. The things on the list should be easy to do and not require much money if any. The reason you need to make a list of things that bring you joy is because first of all, you may not be aware of what things bring you joy. You may have no idea what brings you joy. This is something to contemplate, hey?! I know for me some of the things on my list include listening to music that I have that I love (Goldfrapp’s Seventh Tree), buying yummy groceries for a meal that I want to prepare (borscht comes to mind), getting a spiritual book out of the library that I want to read (Summer’s Path), taking a hot bath with epsom salts and lavender oil, going swimming at the community center and having a steam after, doing breathing exercises that help my body feel good, the list goes on and on. Another reason to create a well being list is that in doing these things on your list you will release powerful healing chemicals into your body. This helps heal you on a physical level which creates better health. Science is proving this. When I am feeling a little lower in terms of my mood and energy level, I will choose one thing on my well being list and bring that into my day. Doing this increases my joy and shifts my vibration into a better space and brings me more well being which translates into better health. Make a list today of the things that bring you joy and try to do one thing each day to create more well being in your day.

If you have no idea what would bring you joy and your list is really short, then you have some self exploration to do. Set the intention that you want to know more of what brings you joy. Then be open to exploring yourself. Watch what turns up for you? If somebody wants to do something with you (let’s say go bowling and you have never gone bowling and are even not sure you would like to go bowling), say yes even though you have no idea what your experience will be. You might see your anxiety show up or negative voices in your head (I can’t bowl; What if I look like an idiot, etc.) Challenge those voices and release your expectations of what the experience will be like. You are now an empty slate; you are a tableau waiting to be written.  All you have to do is agree to say yes to the night of bowling. You say yes to experiencing new things. You say yes to stepping through your fear. You say yes to opening up to life a little bit more. And who knows, you might come home feeling a little more bounce in your step because you tried something new and it was fun. You might see that there is well being available to you in many different forms. You just have to see that it is there. This is how you start to open yourself up to experiencing more joy in your life. This is part of your emotional healing…

The Emotional Side of Healing

By

We are privy to a wide range of emotions on any given day. It is not realistic to only feel emotions such as joy, happiness, and optimism because emotions exist on a spectrum. At one end of the spectrum exist the more uplifting or lighter emotions that we love feeling and on the other end of the spectrum lie the heavy or darker emotions you might rather want to sweep under a rug. We can’t avoid the darker emotions any more than we can stay on the happy train all the time. Don’t get attached to the cycle you are currently in. Know that this too shall pass and in the meantime, the key is to feel these emotions, no matter what they are, but with the intention of releasing them and moving forward. The thoughts that you think, accompanying the release of the emotions, are equally important. If I am feeling sorry for myself and cry while thinking the thought, ‘this person caused me to feel poorly about myself; they hurt me and that is not fair’, feeling the emotion in this situation is not going to make me feel better, more empowered or hopeful that I will have a better feeling state soon. Coming from the standpoint that you are a victim holds you in a lower vibrational state that does not make you feel good. Conversely, if I express sadness and the thought is, ‘I am unhappy that I have chosen to have a perspective that limits me and causes me to feel sorrow. I want to view things from a different perspective next time so I don’t feel like a victim in my life.’ This is a much more empowered state for you to come from and you will feel better from releasing those negative emotions in the moment. Anytime you feel negative emotion it is safe to feel it; you want to feel it and release it in that moment versus holding on to it and storing it in your body. That way it will not do damage to you. Negative emotions held chronically in the body can promote a more inflammatory state in your body. So, what do you do if you are feeling negative emotions chronically? There are a few things you can do. Firstly, ask yourself if you can view the situation from a different perspective. One thing I always ask myself is, ‘what is this situation in my life trying to teach me?’ ‘How is it benefiting me?’ If you see that there is a positive benefit to you then you will feel better about the situation. When you can see that there is always two sides to any situation then that can offer you a new and different perspective. You see that things are not so black and white and choose to view things from a different perspective. This will shift your energy so you feel better.  I also ask myself, ‘how am I like the person that is currently pushing my buttons?’ Generally, you will not react to something unless you disown it in yourself. John Demartini wrote the Breakthrough Experience which elaborates more on this process.

Healing at the emotional level takes courage because often when you have some insight with regards to situations or interpersonal relationships that you find challenging in your life, you may see that you might need to change some things about the way you behave as well. Healing requires you to look at your stuff that may be clouding your vision and preventing you from viewing things from a different perspective. It is never easy to look at yourself with  unglaring honesty. But that is what healing requires. Look at yourself in the light. Take responsibility for yourself, your emotions, your shadow but look with a compassionate and somewhat detached eye. View your life from a spiritual perspective; a higher vantage point. Healing is challenging work but if you look at yourself with love and self acceptance, the path gets easier as you move along… We are all imperfect, trying to live a human life with the ultimate goal of becoming more whole. Healing at the emotional level will help you do that more consistently. It will help you move up the vibrational scale to more positive states of emotion. More on the emotional side of healing  next time…

The Emotional Side of Healing

By

The emotional side of personal healing is one near and dear to my heart.Growing up sensitive and expressing my sensitivity in a self destructive way as a teenager (anorexia) was not the optimal way for me to cope with my emotional side. I have come a long ways since then but I still am extremely sensitive so therefore need tools to help me navigate the challenging spaces of my own personal reality. One of my light bulb moments was when I read about the need to be emotionally independent. Looking back on my life path, I realized that much of my challenges that arose were largely self inflicted because I was emotionally dependent. I was emotionally dependent on other people to make me feel like I was okay. I made them (being the outside world) responsible for my well being. If they treated me well, I would be happy and in harmony. If they treated me less than well, I would immediately blame myself and wonder what I had done to affect their emotional state. As long as my external environment was harmonious I was fine. How realistic is it for your external environment to always be harmonious? Not very! I needed to make my internal environment harmonious to me and stop needing my external environment to make things okay inside myself. This is emotional independence. This is knowing that you alone are responsible for your own well being. No one else can give this to you. This allows you the freedom to let go of needing to make everybody else around you happy; because guess what, you can’t do that! You are not responsible for their well being. They are responsible for that. When I learned this, my whole spirit became lighter. I didn’t have to carry the burdens of everyone else who was less than happy and make me responsible for their well being. This is liberation! So when you are feeling emotionally troubled about something in your life, ask yourself if your emotional state is arising because of something that someone did in your external world. Are they making you unhappy? Did a light bulb go on? When people challenge you, emotionally speaking, it is your perfect opportunity to claim emotional independence; make yourself responsible for how good you feel in each moment. Learning how to be emotionally independent would have saved me years of psychotherapy when I was younger! So, claim your own emotional independence from now on. I challenge you to do this in your own life! You will become a much happier individual moving forward. More on emotional healing next time…