Healing Our Emotions for a Healthier Consciousness

Have you seen the movie Thanks for Sharing? It was released back in 2012, starring Mark Ruffalo and Gwyneth Paltrow. I am a huge movie buff, and thank God, Russill, my husband, is one, too. 🥰

One of the most unforgettable lines from the movie goes like this:

"Feelings are like children. You don't want them driving the car, but you don't want to stuff them in the trunk, either."

This comparison about emotions being like children is the most brilliant one I've come across. It got me thinking that our emotions need guidance and understanding, just like children. Most importantly, how do we healthily and constructively manage strong emotions such as anger, sadness, jealousy, inadequacy, apathy, guilt, and fear without suppressing them?

I don't know about you, but I have been in stressful situations where I have been overwhelmed and tongue-tied by hurtful insults or misplaced anger directed toward me. The worst part is the overwhelm would turn into feelings of anger and inadequacy that would, at times, simmer beneath the surface, turning into a mood* that could last for days, disintegrating my health physically and mentally. And no amount of affirmations, spiritual practices, and meditations eased the pain and hurt that these moods created.

*The difference between a feeling and mood is that feelings (emotions) come and go, are generally a reaction to a person or situation, and do not linger. Meanwhile, moods need not be related to a particular person or incident and typically linger for days, weeks, or even months, chipping away at our joy.

I have spent almost thirty years focusing on nutrition and health. However, I did not know how to effectively manage emotions with strength and calm until I completed my emotional and spiritual wellbeing certification. The healing that came about helped with profound shifts that eluded me in the past.

The faculty who taught me included remarkable board-certified psychiatrists and psychologists. My favorite was the course taught by an MD, Repair Your Relationship With Yourself, based on Richard Schwartz's Internal Family Systems (IFS) methodology.

Here is a confession that might interest you: I have been a dedicated meditator steeped in Eastern and Western spirituality since I was 18 (my current age is 56).

Since my late teens, almost all of my life's focus needed to speak to my spiritual sensitivities and inclinations.

However, it wasn't until I was willing to explore my emotions in an in-depth manner that I noticed how I was using spirituality and meditation as a band-aid to temporarily feel good without addressing the root causes.

Relationships with our fellow beings are crucial for our overall health. However, they come with blessings and challenges. Intimate ones, such as marriage, can be even harder regardless of how much you love and care.

Russill and I are no exceptions. Countless graces have helped us work through our rough patches these last 35 years. But I give great credence to helping each other work through our strong emotions by setting aside our egoic selves. As you may be aware, the primary goal of our egos is to be correct and look good without losing face at any cost.

Our brain is extraordinary, and the frontal lobes are the crowning glory of the human species. Yet, we are hard-wired to focus on the negative and limitations more than the positive and possibilities. This tendency is known as negativity bias, and it happens to the best of us.

It's a universal truth that regardless of how evolved we may consider ourselves, every human has to grapple with an inherent negativity bias. We use reasons (often convincing ones) to justify our thoughts, feelings, habits, and why we are the way we are rather than proactively changing them.

Believe me, I also resist change when I encounter it. But our souls are meant to heal and evolve. The hard fact is, whether we like it or not, expansion requires change, a new vision, and a new way of doing and being to help us reach the unreachable or the unattainable, be it in health, relationships, or joy.

Living with inner calm and fortitude in our world today is not easy. We understand this feeling well, which is why we have just started a transformative journey with a fantastic group of registered students who are deeply committed to their transformation for the highest good of all. This profound and doable program is designed to create an imperturbable sense of belonging to ourselves in the most authentic way possible. Moreover, there isn't an exhaustive to-do list, which is why it is so doable.

You will be guided by accessible and attainable actions to tap deep-state perceptions with the intention of ushering in levels of self-healing that might have previously evaded you.

Finally, whether you are a vegan or ketovore, this transformative journey, which includes cooking together, can help.

Once a month, we gather as a community to participate in the joy of cooking together on Zoom, which we've accomplished quite wonderfully since COVID-19.

Our aim is not to persuade you to adopt a specific dietary preference or way of being but to guide you toward a place of depth-consciousness and peace, all from the comfort of your home.

Our gatherings also include community prayer, meditation, presentations, and discussions. And you miss nothing since, even if you can't make the live Zoom sessions, everything, including brand new lessons on Supraconsciousness (a state of transcendental consciousness), is loaded up for you to stream at your fingertips, any time of the day or night. You control what you do, how much you do, and when you do it.

Russill and I would love for you to join us, as it is never too late. That is the beauty of online!

Please click on the link below for more information and enrollment:

May our expanded consciousness be a powerful force for global healing.

Asha