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Your Emotional Debt
On the surface, everyday life has become much more comfortable than ever before. Yet people still lead lives of quiet desperation. The source of this desperation is repression, a sense that you cannot be what you want to be, cannot feel what you want to feel, cannot do what you want to do.
A creator should never be trapped in this way. No authority looms over you to enforce repression; it is entirely self-forced. Any part of yourself that you cannot face puts a barrier between you and reality.
Yet emotions are entirely private. Only you know how you feel, and when you stop censoring your emotions, the effect goes far beyond feeling better. Your aim is not to experience only positive emotions.
We all owe emotional debts to the past, in the form of feelings we couldn’t allow ourselves to express. The past isn’t over as long as these debts go unpaid. You don’t have to return to the person who made you angry or afraid, with the intention of revising how the past turned out. For that person, the impact can never be the same as it is for you.
Every hidden, blocked feeling is like a chunk of frozen consciousness. It is another obstacle between you and the silent witness that must be dissolved. Time and attention have to be paid, sitting with your feelings and letting them say what they have to say.
The purpose of getting rid of emotional debt is to find your place in the present.
Adapted from The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2004).
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9 comments
add your comment »i have found in my years people find it difficult to be honest with themselves because i believe honest can sometimes be misrepresented. it can be taken and used in a negative context to justify a person's thoughts or actions. however if people could see that honesty is TRUTH, something which is positive. something that leaves you feeling refreshed, not a conclusion that puts you down, but one that lifts you up and helps you towards feeling whole.
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When I read this article first I thought emotional debt...you can write-off a debt. But experience has told me that if you are still carrying an old emotion around with you, it is most likely because it needs to be addressed and answered. Not because someone else is or was responcible but that I have not resolved it for my self and it is frozen in my mind until it has beenis thawed out and melted into the whole picture. This matter will once and for all resolved and you can sit in peace.
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A blocked feeling is a failed feeling, the shadowed self, and as far as I'm concerned, can STAY frozen until this old soul wants to deal with it, when ready. Everything melts eventually...and you know, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. :D
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I don't think we even have to necessarily understand another's feelings. It is enough to let them feel whatever they are feeling without judgement..Not to dwell, but to acknowledge and deal with. If we all practiced this, we might all be a little more honest.
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THIS WORLD WE LIVE ON COTAINS EMOTIONS AND DEPRESSION WITHOUT THAT HOW ARE WE GOING TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER FEELINGS.
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Turning 50 caused me to reassess my life. I am truthful with myself and with others. At midnight, I think about the day - was I kind, did I try to live to the best of my ability? I then pray the rosary, and prepare to start a new day. No, I am not perfect, but I try to be generous and loving towards all.
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I agree with that statment,on all levels.
yes,the surface is what we want people to think of us but we really don't want our true self show because we think if we do tell of our thoughts other will think low of us.
those that repress their feeling of emotion and anger hurt them self more,I keep telling those I associate myself with that freedom is happiness but you have to give your self that type of freedom it has to do with getting to know your self deeper level.
I have to return to my work now is the only way I would stop myself from going on and on hehappy all and love your selves
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WOW I NEEDED THAT.
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"Every hidden, blocked feeling is like a chunk of frozen consciousness."
This is a great expression. I also think it applies to ways of doing things...
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