Not a stupid question at all April - through observing you can allow supressed emotions to dissolve. Once you know how to observe, it's really simple, however, because we are not used to doing this, we just need to do it until it becomes a natural good habit.
Here's how I got into it:-
Bearing in mind, we all have busy lives and therefore we don't have the time to analyse all the feelings and sensations we experience - plus we tend to think that these emotions are who we are.
Feeling happy and at peace etc. can just be enjoyed and are good states to experience - just imagine you are in a happy state and then someone says or does something that offends, irritates or makes you feel angry or afraid, you have the opportunity to notice the feeling or sensation somewhere in your physical body which will accompany this emotion. (It could be a tight feeling in your stomach or maybe even a lump in your throat for example)
What you need to do is accept the sensation and without getting emotionally involved with it, just close your eyes, accept that it's there, observe it and in your mind, ask it where it is coming from.
Keep doing this until the sensation goes away - it may take quite a few minutes for this to happen.
I personally have a few friends who are meditating with LifeFlow and they are really enjoying some great benefits.
One of my friends however used to be irritable and angry after meditation which was unpleasant for his family. After spending a little time with him, explaining that he was probably resisting emotions that were coming up to be released, he learned to observe and watch them until they dissolved and now he and his family are benefitting tremendously.
He was contemplating giving up after only a few weeks, until I explained that these supressed emotions would stay with him forever if he didn't allow them to surface, accept them and observe the sensation they brought with them until it faded away. Although I'm not an analytical person, we discovered that he had never been allowed to be angry as a child and it was wrong to feel this way.
As I am writing now, I am remembering that in the early days of meditating with LifeFlow, I sometimes experienced the sensation of having a lump in my throat (this has happened a number of times throughout my younger life when I felt hurt by someone) Unfortunately, I cannot remember if I actually observed this feeling - I don't think I did, I was just aware of it, accepted that this was normal and trusted that whatever was happening in meditation was the right thing for me.
As I was sleeping better, experiencing clearer thinking and focus and enjoying more energy, I knew I was benefitting from meditation and so I happily carried on enjoying the special time for me.
This is when I began to observe, during my daily routine. If something happened and I felt irritable or offended for instance, I would seize the opportunity to close my eyes, accept and observe the physical sensation until it went.
Then the big clearing process began which allowed me to let go of some big supressed emotions from the past and experience the present moment on a consistant basis. I had a bad dream and woke up with a dreadful feeling as though I was paralysed with fear. It was about 4:30 in the morning and as I was about to shake it off and thank goodness that it was only a dream, I realized this too was an opportunity to observe and release.
I closed my eyes again, accepted and observed the feeling. Now, I'm sure you'll agree, things that happen in the dark of the night always seem more scary. This was certainly true in this experience. It took for me, amazing courage to do this - I even felt that I might become paralysed if I observed this physical sensation which was in my spine
Anyway, I observed and curiously asked the question in my mind to the sensation "Where are you coming from?" After what seemed like about 20 minutes for the sensation to move slowly down my spine and disappear, the words betrayal and abandonment came to my mind.
When the sensation had gone I knew something big had been released and I got up and wrote four A4 sheets about the experience.
We all experience frightening things when we are little and for me, when I was aged 2, my mother had a complete mental breakdown and went to hospital for 9 months. The specialists told my father she would never be well again and she certainly wasn't in a healthy state for her two little girls to see.
I have no conscious memory of this although I'm sure this would have been traumatic to a little 2 year old at the time. Almost a year later I had polio in my right leg - fortunately after being hospitalised for a few months and attending many physiotherapy sessions I learned to walk again and was cured.
Who knows if there is a connection to this dream - it doesn't matter - what does matter is, that night I found the courage to face a fear and realised after, just how good it was to release it. It wasn't real - it just appeared that way.
That night I learned that I could observe anything I experienced - it's just a great release process. I have had 3 more dreams over the last eighteen months (all different and all dealing with different emotions) and now, when they happen, instead of shrugging them off, I just accept and observe, knowing I am letting go of things that have restricted me in the past.
Now, I believe, through learning how to observe and release emotions that have imprisoned me, my mind is freed up, allowing me to be creative, focused and able to find solutions so easily.
April, I know this has been a long winded reply, I hope it helps you understand what a wonderful difference you can make to your life through meditation, observing and releasing the emotions that hamper our lives. I wish you an abundance of peace and joy
It's not our fault but is it our responsibility
Linear Mode
