Join the online Light Gathering with Nat on Tuesday, here
A lot of people are being run by their emotional reactions. How they feel is dictated by their outer environment, and then they allow those reactive feelings to guide their thinking and actions. It creates a situation where their outer environment controls their inner environment. That is a substandard approach to life, and one that results in misery.
When you are consistently reacting negatively to things outside of you, it is an abrogation of your responsibility to your inner wellbeing. If you allow your emotional state to be dictated by outer events, you give over the one thing you can control: your attitude.
When you decide that you no longer want your emotions to be reacting like a jumping toothache to every happening in the world, another common mistake is to suppress the emotions or move into denial of outer circumstances. When people are on a “conscious” path, that’s known as spiritual override, where they use spiritual practices to pretend that everything is good when it isn’t. Neither of these is a good solution.
Having an emotional reaction isn’t the issue, because if you see something disturbing or something of a traumatic nature happens to you, it is normal to have an emotional reaction. What is important is whether your emotional reaction is in control of you, or if you are in control of you. You don’t control your emotions through forcing them to be different or stuffing them. You exert emotional control by directing your emotions, and choosing how you will manage what is coming up. That starts by what you are looking at and where you are focusing your inner vision.
In my recent online Light Gathering events (which you can join here), one of the processes I am having people do is to just list the names and situations they would like to put into the Light.
I noticed that as people were asking for the Light, they were talking from their upset, their opinions of what should be taking place, what shouldn’t be happening, or getting into their story about what is going on, rather than just neutrally placing the things taking place in the world and in their lives in the Light.
So the new directions are to simply say the names of the people and the situations, like reading a list, into the Light. I allow an opportunity for sharing with me after that process if they want more help.
I don’t require people to be neutral when they are asking for the Light, or to not have the emotional upset or strong opinions around what is going on, but I do require people to not allow those emotions and opinions to be indulged in as we put things into the Light.
For that one process during the evening, they must be in charge of their emotional expression. And the amazing thing is that everyone has stepped up and is able to do that. At least for that one period of time, people exercise discipline in their emotional expression. It just shows that, when asked, people can exert authority over their emotions rather than let their emotions control them.
I remember when my teacher, John-Roger, would do sharings with people. Sometimes, a person would get really emotional as they were talking and it was hard to hear what they were saying. He would say something like, “I really want to hear what you have to say, but I’m finding that difficult with the emotions. Can you tell it to me without the emotions?”
It was amazing. I don’t think I ever saw anyone who couldn’t do it when asked. They would immediately repeat what they were saying without the emotional energy on the words. Not only did it make it possible to understand the person, but it gave them an opportunity to be in charge of their emotions.
It’s fine to have the emotions, and it is important to find healthy ways of letting go of the negative emotions, but it is a sign of emotional maturity to take dominion over your emotional state, directing your emotional energy. It is important to be able to choose what you are acting on.
Discipline equals freedom. If you are constantly being run by your emotional reactions to outer events, then you are a slave to outer circumstances. If you demonstrate the discipline of directing your expression towards a positive attitude, choosing to act from your higher intention rather than your emotional reaction to outer events, then you are moving towards freedom inside.
People talk about giving away their power to others, but others never really have that power. You can’t give away your true power because that is of the Soul. You always have the power within you. You give it away inside of you to the lesser aspects of yourself, and you can take your power back by choosing to not be run by your lower nature, and by directing your energy into your higher expression.
It is through the discipline of consistently choosing the higher path that you find freedom from your lower nature.