You may have passed by homes that are so overgrown that it’s difficult to imagine that someone actually comes and goes, let alone, lives inside. I say this with an empathetic heart since it may have to do with one’s attempt to create safety in the midst of fear. We may respond by thinking my yard is groomed and my house is pretty clean. And yet, when we consider the amount of emotional baggage that we may stuff inside of us, restuff, push down, and smash into the deep corners and crevices of our being, we may revisit this photograph with an altered perspective.
We may spend our resources, including our time, money, focus, and energy to manage the external structures of our life (yard, home, office, car family, friends, etc.) which are obvious and important priorities. And yet, the part of us that may feel overlooked, minimized, dismissed or ignored, may likely be our internal life – the parts of ourself that are dynamically alive within us, including the different ages of our developing self – who hold on to the countless experiences, beliefs, and decisions of our past that impact our current life and the way in which we perceive our future. In reality, we may actually live in the past – as we live in fear about the future, all-the-while missing the opportunity to live in the present.
Eckhart Tolle is helpful in unpacking the pain-body. His undeliable presence as a teacher/mentor for countless world citizens is unmistakeable: An emotion – is the body’s response to a thought. Thoughts that trigger emotional responses in the body may sometimes come so fast that before the mind has had time to voice them, the body has already responded with an emotion, and the emotion has turned into a reaction. Negative emotion – is toxic to the body and interferes with its balance and harmonious functioning. Fear, anxiety, anger, bearing a grudge, sadness, hatred or intense dislike, jealousy, envy – all disrupt the energy flow through the body, affect the heart, the immune system, digestion, production of hormones and so on. (A New Earth – Awakening to your Life’s Purpose, Eckhart Tolle)
Our thoughts feed the negative emotions from our past, which may unfortunately keep us from living in the present, and may feed our fearful hypervigilance about the future. As we come to understand that our thoughts are fed by our ego, the unconsious, win-seeking, full of illusion, fighting to survive and enlarge, reactive – part of us, that feeds our negative emotions, we may hopefully choose to step back and observe the drama that is alive on the theatrical stage inside of us. And as Eckhart Tolle so wisely offers: Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists. (A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle) He teaches that presence and conscious awareness surface within us when we observe and acknowledge the ego’s constant nudging within us given that the ego and awareness are incompatible and mutually exclusive. When we are fully present, the ego isn’t running us – and vice versa.
The overgrown negative emotional baggage that may be stuffed deep inside of us, is held tightly by the fragile fingers of the younger parts of us who may long for safe-releasing expression such that our inner pressure-cooker steam can be released over time, and that our system can stabilize and return to full healthy functioning. Assessing our personal level of fear and the layers of mad and sad that may have accumulated through the years, and forging small steps on this journey toward safe expression, may be important ingredients for finding safe avenues to release what may reside in the deep recesses of the body. Finding a licensed mental health professional who is a good fit may be helpful in supporting the healing journey. What may be overgrown within, may be the guiding light and faithful force in mapping the delicate steps on the healing path.
Jules Steffen, LMHC, CHT, PPN 