After you have gone through a painful experience, do you usually try to forget about it, put it behind you and keep moving forward? While this may seem like the most practical thing to do, it can actually prevent you from moving forward as you intended.
With every troubling experience, emotional energy is generated and held in your body. Trying to push forward without first allowing yourself the time to heal and repair your emotional scars will cause that energy to keep repeating in your future experiences.
This can create ongoing turmoil in your relationships, your work dynamics, finances, and even your physical health status. You may find yourself overreacting to minor situations, or experiencing emotional upset at the slightest provocation. Unresolved feelings can also be turned inward towards yourself, leading to feelings of depression, rage, and self-loathing.
Rather than moving forward too soon, you may want to create a process that helps you to work through your feelings, heal emotional scars, and repair any damage that was done to your belief system as a result.
This can be done in three simple steps:
First, give yourself permission to fully express your feelings. Whether you feel angry, hurt, betrayed, rejected, abandoned or anything else, your feelings are valid and need a loving space for expression and release. You can do this by writing in a journal about the experience and the way it made you feel, or you can sit quietly and be present with the feelings, allowing them to flow gently through your awareness.
Next, as you begin to feel a bit lighter and more at peace about the situation, then you can begin healing any emotional scars that may have formed. With your eyes closed, mentally scan through your body, starting at the top of your head and moving your attention slowly downward, all the way to your toes. If you notice any areas that feel heavy, tight, constricted, or empty, it’s a sign that emotional energy could be lingering there. Focus your attention on that part of your body and imagine flowing a warm current of love through it. Speak directly to the emotional pain and say, “It’s okay to let go and heal now.” Continue flowing love to this wounded part of you and notice how the constriction softens and releases. Repeat this until the area feels light and open.
Finally, examine the beliefs that you hold about yourself, especially as they relate to the painful experience. For example, do you now have the sense that you are unlovable, not good enough, or that you are being punished by the universe? If you notice any faulty beliefs like these, make a conscious decision to release them. Say, “I let go of this belief that I am not good enough. That is not true now, and it has never been true. I’m letting go of this faulty belief. I choose to know that I am good enough. I have always been good enough, and I am good enough now.”
It may take some time to work through these three steps, but doing so will free you from emotional baggage and wipe the slate clean so that you can move forward feeling whole, healthy, and eager about the wonderful experiences that await you.
