It is a strange paradox that, often, the way to get past an uncomfortable feeling is to fully experience it. The way out is through. It is our natural tendency as humans to want to escape discomfort, but frequently the way to avoid continually re-experiencing an uncomfortable emotion is to endeavour to embrace it as fully as we can. We might allow ourselves to face it head on – allow it some expansive space in our body – welcome it in – tolerate the discmofort of it as fully as we can – whilst minding ourself. And then maybe there is movement – maybe we feel something lifting away – a shift takes place. The fear can be that if I allow this discomfort to live in me too much I will be stuck with it even more than I am at the moment. But the potential in the process of fully experiencing an uncomfortable emotion, is that the expansiveness that goes with our allowing it to be in us, invites with it the possibility of movement, flow and shift. The possibility that, even we have lived with this since childhood, we can experience greater awareness, gain information from our body and know movement in our state of being.
Having said this, if anything is ever too much for you personally, then stop. If you feel too overwhelmed to do this then see if you can talk to a family member, friend, therapist or other professional to get some support for yourself.
“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.” from the book “The Road Less Travelled” by M. Scott Peck
If you are not too overwhelmed at the moment, then the following are some brief instructions to guide you towards connecting with your inner landscape.
