“We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.” Brené Brown
Here is my first question. Does the Universe pass judgement on any day? Does Infinite Energy say, “Wow, you really screwed up on that day!”? Or, how about Mother Nature, in reference to the trees in a forest? “Stupid tree! Annoying tree! Ridiculous tree! … Now, finally, THERE is a reasonable, smart tree!” Does Mother Nature claim this about herself? NO! It is absurd to consider.
Here is the first part of my query: I am feeling sad, despair, and heart broken…. Is this a good day or a bad day?
I want to call sad feelings bad. I want to make them go away. I don’t like them! I want to make a list of bad feelings and good feelings, separate the two, and focus on ‘good’ only. Then my life will be better, right?!!
Now, let’s flip our philosophy back to the top of the page. The Universe, Mother Earth, doesn’t judge or condemn. There is only ONE thing happening. So, what if my sad feelings are for Good? They must be. We know the value of Emotional Intelligence. We call it Intelligence because our emotions are teachings us. They are showing us something about ourselves and our life.
“The Teacher of Teachers”, Emma Curtis Hopkins, taught that, “If you put a strong truth into your feeling of grief, the union of the word (truth) and the feeling will make a fertile soil for a great good to grow up in. For Grief is the call for a bold statement of faith in the good.”
When I stick with my sad feelings, instead of pushing them away, I learn something about myself and my life. I learn what changes are asking to be made. I learn that the unkind stories I tell myself aren’t true. I learn about where I have been asleep to myself, and immersed in ‘shoulds’.
Next query: if I were to ask you for some dark, can you give it? No, you can’t, because darkness isn’t a thing in and of itself. Darkness is the absence of light. At night we bring a candle and create light, it is effortless. However, if a room is light, it takes great pains to make it dark.
One thing I know about the nature of the Universe, is that it takes no effort to create with it. For instance, my friend has a beautiful garden, and if I ask her to bring flowers for an event, she goes to her garden, without much thought, and creates the most beautiful bouquet. It is easy for her because such creation is a natural ability she has, and she is creating within her nature.
We can’t dim our light. We can try, but Light wants to shine through. That is a function of our natures. (Emma Curtis Hopkins spoke of a fire burning in each of us). It takes effort to move against the Nature of which we are a part. It takes effort to cover up our Good. (I know, as I have tried it, over and over, and my sadness is telling me that. Will I sit in my emotion long enough to hear the message, or will I try to dampen it with distraction… ANY DISTRACTION!?!?!)
I have come to realize that my sadness comes from pushing away and covering up my light. Why do I do it? Because I have listened to a story that something or someone is more important than me!
Metaphysician, Dr. Ernest Holmes, wrote, “If the universe demanded suffering it would destroy itself. Why then do we suffer?”
Yes, I suffer when I am sad. But this is no reason to will it away, or to push it away. I need to learn from it.
Holmes went on: “The only reason we suffer is because we do not yet know how notto suffer. How are we going to learn not to suffer? First of all, we should be absolutely certain that we can have confidence in the Universe. There is a transcendent Something in us that rises triumphant over every disillusionment, fear, and failure.”
Phew!
When any of us judge our feelings as ‘bad’, we are holding onto a belief in separation. We are affirming that there may be Spirit, but there is also something else… something ‘bad’. (In my case, that something bad is me feeling sad, or ‘wrong’, or ‘screwing up’).
Every problem that exists in life is backed by a false belief. Once I identify and really look at that belief, I can decide whether or not it is serving me. As soon as I choose to let go of whatever apparent pay off there may have been from adhering to that belief, my sadness dissolves and only my true nature is left… and that looks like goodness… joy. I am not saying that joy is better, I am saying that, like darkness is the absence of light in the physical realm, when I bring Truth to my own inner ‘darkness’ I become able to see my light. Sadness is the absence of joy. When I bring what is truly going on within me ‘to light’, my sadness transforms to joy.
Science of Mind teaches that there is an Infinite Universe. The foundational attributes of this Universe are joy, peace, power, beauty, life, light, love, goodness, abundance…. If the Universe is infinite and It’s nature is defined by these attributes, then The Good is everywhere present! If this isn’t my lived experience, then the invitation is to stay with whatever else I may be feeling long enough to uncover the story that is blinding me to the Truth.
The secret of spiritual power is a consciousness of our union with the whole. We are one with a Universal Creativeness. This Spirit is accessible to all people… all the time… in all ways.
This is what we can do: We can listen, and we can stay with our feelings long enough that the story is revealed. Then, we can collapse the stories that aren’t life affirming, we can look up, and we can choose to speak Truth. There is only one thing happening!
