What can possibly help move the circus beasts out of our thoughts, our emotions, our bodies?
It helps to recognize that our individual life is an independent journey of our soul. It doesn't really matter much what it is that WE THINK we want in our lives. The soul leads the way whether we know it or not. It helps to know it. Our control revolves around the way in which we respond to life as it presents itself to us.Every monster that sets foot on our path has been prearranged by the soul as a test of our perseverance and tenacity, a test of our capacity, determination and capability. Our own suppressed animal wildness aids and abets us in our struggle to survive.
But what step can we take if we want life to be less of a struggle, more peaceful?
Become willing to know the shadow side of ourselves. Be willing to admit the shadow side is as much a part of Spirit as the positive side of us. Fear, anger, guilt, jealousy, shame, blame, you name it, rise up inside of us as untamed wild beasts and monsters of the night because these emotions are unwanted by us. We judge them as bad and hide them away as best we can. We push them away. We try our best to prove to ourselves and others that these qualities do not exist within ourselves. And they do. Of course they do. They are an integral part of us.
Negative emotions and thoughts are not bad, they are thoughts and emotions that rightfully exist in a world of duality. Once we acknowledge the negativity as a natural part of 'all' that is necessary in our world, we give them room to breathe. Breathing room enables them to become our teachers and our friends rather than the stuff of nightmares. We begin to see they are only scary because we lock them away. Imprison them with no food, water or air to breathe. Eventually the force of being trapped without nourishment and air causes them to explode.
Once we accept the shadow as a natural, organic aspect of ourselves, our own inner light provides the understanding we need about the situation at hand. This understanding shifts the cellular structure of our emotional and mental bodies. We change our perspectives. It is as if we are dismembered, the old parts cleaned off and oiled, and then reassembled in a way that makes us more attuned and more aligned with our soul's purpose.
There are life situations that require professional assistance to balance polarities. But for many of us, we can learn to create space so that negative emotions can release themselves safely. A mantra that is repeated forwards and backwards for several minutes when the emotion arises will assist in the safe release. For example, if you are angry, repeat (scream if you need to scream) "I am anger. Anger I am." If you are grieving a loss, cry "I am grief. Grief I am." If you feel ashamed, "I am shame. Shame I am." If you are depressed, "I am depressed. Depressed I am." Whatever you are feeling, acknowledge the feeling is real, it exists, admit that you feel it and say the mantra forwards and backwards.
This approach enables us to take responsibility for the emotions we feel. At the same time it creates a sphere of space for the energy to dismember itself from the body and to release itself without causing danger to oneself or anyone else. Therefore, it creates a space of healing that encompasses the soul, the mind, the emotions, and the physical body as well as the fifth sense, the Spirit.
And through the process of dismembering, we begin to let go of the conditioned reactions of the past. We learn to walk on the earth in a new way. We begin to REMEMBER who we truly are. And we begin to understand what unconditioned love truly is.
May you be blessed with dismembering and remembering!
