3 Pillars to Emotional Strength
Dark and unexpressed emotions can often suffocate our hearts and disrupt our inner compass of wisdom. When we manage our emotional environment and deeper feeelings with greater awareness and compassion we are able to move with them and through them rather than be imprisoned by them. Emotions are energy, so the more fluidly we can engage with our feelings, the more inner harmony we create. We are all oceans of emotion. Even the people that seem more detached and aloof still feel with great depth, by nature or nurture they deal with their emotions differently through a framework of emotional acuity that they have engrained. Though the crux remains- we cannot deny emotion. What we feel are wounds that are brought to the surface for healing, words we need to express, and anger that we need to drive toward an enlightened direction.
Emotions are our messengers, like calls from our soul that we need to recognize, accept, and direct. Here are 3 pillars of emotional strength.
Emotional honesty and Recognition
Emotional strength is something that we build upon and inspire by our authenticity and honesty with self. In order to heal, we must firstly feel and accept accountability for our emotional health. The layers we hide beneath move us further away from the centre of our heart’s intelligence; it becomes like a suit of emotional armour that we adorn and yet all it does is hurt us more in the long term. We feel weakened by heavy and hurtful emotion, yet in actual fact, therein rests our greatest strength. When we courageously face our feelings we open up a gateway to better understanding and we free ourselves from a limiting grip that litters our way forward. Journaling thoughts and emotions help to clarify that voice we hold so protectively within and shine a light on the lies we try to conceal to ourselves and others. Listening to music we love or connect to draws emotion from our soul.
All emotions have value and something to share with us when we take the time to listen to what resides within.
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places”- Ernest Hemingway
Intuition and Inner strength
We shut down our heart space when we fail to recognize our emotions. As young children we were ruled by our heart and feelings, as adults our mind and mental processes have taken the reign because we live largely in protection mode and in a state of familiarity. For many of us, as children we were never taught the real value of emotion and how to manage those deep and overwhelming waves that could either commit us to despair or sweep us high in a state of happy. And so it takes true effort and inner strength to open our hearts and permit ourselves to embrace a level of vulnerability that tucks us back into the elemental nature of our heart and intuition. We are all sewn with wisdom and a full tapestry of intuition that signs our name to our soul.
There are no vacant spaces within; when we direct our life from a heart-led platform we begin to skim the surface of our deeper settings.
“I throw a spear into the darkness. That is intuition. Then I must send an army into the darkness to find the spear. That is intellect”- Ingmar Bergman
Compassion and Understanding
Compassion and understanding are like the backbone of love in its highest form. When we act out of fear, hurt and anger we diminish the very things that we are all comprised of- love, light, and truth. That’s not to say it’s not OK to rage and feel anger and all our darker emotions…we are designed to feel the full palette of human emotion, but we need to pause and reflect when we feel those blasts of energy and take responsibility for how we express and channel it. Forgiveness is something that we frequently struggle with because we have failed so abysmally at forgiving ourselves first for all our own seemingly bad judgements, behaviours, and natural characteristics. If we cannot first show compassion and care to ourselves then how can we extend this outwardly to the people that we bond and connect with?
The human race is far from the perfect notion of ‘perfect’ but we will find more of what sits in the chambers of our heart. We will continue cycles of hurt and inner struggle until we realize what it takes to look with eyes of love upon ourselves first.
“Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond”- Hypatia
Emotion is a fiery and telling beauty. The more we can unravel about ourselves, the stronger and more resolute we become. And ‘become’ is a key word… we grow into our glory and our true strength when we magnetize all our qualities as smaller pieces to the greater whole.
Categorised as: Inspiration, Motivation, Personal Growth and Spirituality