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Letting Go Emotionally
Emotions are more stubborn than thoughts. The glue that holds you fast to your beliefs and expectations is emotion. Whenever you tell yourself that you can’t let go, you are making an emotional statement.
In reality you can let go of any situation any time. “I can’t” really means, “I fear the emotional consequences if I do.” Your ego draws a line in the sand and insists that you will not survive the inner feelings that will arise if the line is crossed.
A powerful limitation is being self-imposed here, and at bottom it isn’t true. You will survive any emotion; indeed, whatever you consider to be too much fear, too much loss, too much humiliation, too much disapproval, too much rejection has already happened.
You have crossed the line many times, otherwise you wouldn’t know where to draw it. What your ego is really saying is that you can’t cross the line again. From spirit’s point of view, however, you don’t have to.
There is a law in the unconscious that whatever you avoid will come back, and the more you avoid it, the stronger its return.
Painful emotions don’t come back for external reasons. They return because they are part of you; you created them before pushing them away. Every emotion you experience is yours.
We all make the mistake of believing that something “out there” makes us afraid, angry, depressed, anxious, and so on. In truth events “out there” are only triggers. The cause of every emotion is “in here,” which means that inner work can heal it.
Adapted from The Path to Love, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 1997).
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17 comments
add your comment »True.. Anything happens outside us cannot hurt us unless we give them power to do so..
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We limit ourselves in ways no one else can. We limit God in our lives, as well. Appreciate this excerpt from your book "The Path to Love, by Deepak Chopra [Three Rivers Press, 1997]"....
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Thanks so much Dearest Deepak for this very interesting article and for sharing with us. Thanks to the other members, too, for sharing their views.
Love,
Black Dalia:)
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Kinda reminds me of that old saw about how a coward dies a thousand times, and a hero, only the once. Basically, you have to leap into the lion's mouth, that kind of thing, or it actually gets worse the more you postpone it, like not going to the doctor while it only hurts a little, instead of a lot.
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You're right, Brenda, soul growth & awareness IS hard work! Many times I stop myself and say "Now that I 'got God', I can't react like this". And it is essential to conduct a daily self-audit. I often reflect on how much simpler life was, when I was ignorant to my spiritual consciousness! But, I also remind myself of how great it is to purge myself of 'negative cell memory'.
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Thanks for this post. It makes perfect sense to me and is something I can and will apply.
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great words as always. thank you for this post, and passed to others.
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Thank you so much for this artical and thanks also to all the others who have made such insightful comments. This concept comes to me at a time when I need it the most.
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Perfect...every word so true. Once we realize the truth in regard to our fears, we become free! Again, Deepak, thank you for your clear messages.
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Ah, "triggers". Sometimes I have more of those than I care to have. I see them as opportunities to delve into myself and to try to learn more effectively how to deal with those emotions once they surface. Often it can be traced back to years ago when an emotion was not effectively express or was perhaps repressed. But here it is AGAIN. Maybe different "trigger" but same emotion. It's mine for sure. Yet, it is often so quick a response, it is difficult to stop projecting onto another person, place, object or situation.
Man! This learning to be an altert, conscious, and effectively growing human being/soul is hard work.
Could someone please wipe the sweat off my brow? :)
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