Skip to main content

Wade into feelings


There's an old beautiful spiritual, Wade in the Water which referred to liberation from enslavement; while many assumed it was a reference to the exodus from Egypt, it was moreover an instruction to fugitive slaves to leave dry land which, while easy to run on, lead one to be quickly captured. Instead, the fugitive was instructed to head into the water as a means of escape. 

The spiritual is not an instruction to bide one's time in hopes of passive salvation or divine intervention, it's an encouragement to move towards freedom by giving up what's familiar and pushing onto the difficult path of freedom.

Wading can also serve as an analogy for working with emotions, feelings and moods: Rather than staying up in our heads, where the thoughts created by our moods can so easily entrap us, we seek release by lowering our awareness into the body, 'wading' into often turbulent physical expression of our emotions. How does it work?

"Witness:" what is occurring at the present moment without identifying. If emotional states don't arise, we can summon them by asking ourselves "how does it feel?" "what needs to be felt?" 

"ADmit:" all that's felt in the abdomen, chest and throat without resistance or commentary, allowing sensations that arise to unfold freely.

"Ease:" all that arises to deter us from contacting our emotions: the locked jaw, the tight forehead, the shallow, rapid breath, the antagonistic thoughts and external distractions and on.

When we move into body of emotions, we bring with us compassion and determination, we leave behind impatience and self-judgement. We also drop the tendency to take anything personally, knowing that we all work with the same color palette: excitement, guilt, relief, shame, pleasure, fear, embarrassment.

As we wade through our feelings, gradually the waters become calmer, and we arrive where we're safe; turning away from the busyness of the world and the false shelters of greed and accumulation, we choose instead the 'other shore' of inner peace.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

fear

There are times in life when intrusive, fear based thoughts latch hold of us, filling the mind with swarming, buzzing thoughts, distracting us during interactions with others, muting the sensory richness of each moment—the sounds, body sens ations, aromas, feelings and on. Such dire visitors—generally based on past resentments or speculative fears—can easily bait and hook us, threatening us with annihilation, repeating constantly; given how constant the messages can be, releasing such thoughts can feel like ignoring ‘the world is going to end’ new flashes on CNN or city sirens announcing impending hurricanes. The mind can really play tricks that make it all to easy to abandon the present, which is, of course, the only place of true safety and utility. When we find the mind latching onto these narratives, images or moods, and we can’t reassure, reason with or let go, sometimes the only solution is to give up the battle and actually write down what our fears are trying to tell us. If ...
1 comment
Read more

Imagination And Creativity as Spiritual Practice

It’s worth noting how few of childhoods’ freewheeling exercises—the entertainments that were once synonymous with youthful delight—journey through to adult life. To a great degree, we’ve moved, en masse, toward consuming entertainment via television, video games and social media rather than creating our entertainment: drawing, making pottery, dancing, singing, and other inventive endeavors. Those same kindergartners who sing, draw, dance, and engage in all kinds of play, will, in only a few years’ time, be streaming their content via iPad screens, which requires less imagination and effort.  Consider the mind’s two dominant cognitive networks: the first is the default mode network (DMN), a mental state wherein we can visualize possibilities or solve problems, but where we often wind up speculating about unknowable future outcomes or ruminating about interpersonal conflicts. DMN is largely activated by subregions associated with inductive reasoning centers of the brain (t...
9 comments
Read more

yoniso

In the 1960s Michael Gazzanega noted that: the human brain is organized in terms of a “mental society.”…alongside our verbal system, there resides any number of “mental units” [that each] have memories, values, and emotions, and are expressed through any of a variety of systems.’ What makes this process so eerie is that these systems may not be in touch with each other but rather, have their own existence outside of language and our logic.’ • reptilian brainstem: homestatic body regulation; breath, digestion, shutdown freeze autonomic systems (digestion, appetite, sleep) are disrupted; hold breath • midbrain: survival impulses that activate core emotions (amygdala); heart racing, terror, panic, addictive craving RH/Emo mind , processes experience emplicitly; impulses lie outside of cons. control; context, connection & security . Early, pre-verbal memories are stored in oFrntl & amygdala; the emotional mind largely sends non-verbal signals • Emo facial cues: tears afte...
Post a Comment
Read more