Karen Restivo
In Other Words....
When asked recently why I thought there’s been a disconnect in our ability to be respectful of one another’s opinions, I looked no further than one of my heroes, author Eckhart Tolle, for a simple answer.
Emotions are an energy field.
We all experience them; it’s how much control we hand over to emotions that might need reviewing. Tolle says when we allow our emotions to drive us, essentially, we are asleep at the wheel.
For instance, if I say, “I’m scared,” I’m literally saying I have fully become identified with the emotion.
That’s not what’s happening.
What’s happening is I am feeling the emotion of fear that’s creating my sense of being scared.
Self-observation is key here.
This brief glimpse unlocks the reality that emotions are something outside of ourselves.
Today, we are experiencing such superficial remedies to calm our emotions and get instant gratification.
Did anyone say ice cream?
Emotional eating aside, the culprit can be identifying way too closely with our emotions.
The most common negative emotions are fear, anger, guilt, loneliness, sadness, frustration, etc.
According to Tolle, it’s necessary to become more self-aware.
He says, “When things go wrong, become more conscious.”
We don’t need to react out of our learned mental, emotional conditioning in the past.
Our awareness will pick up on anxiety or anger.
It may be in you, but it’s not you.
As one of my local teachers reminds me, “Let’s just sit with this statement for a moment.”
Emotions are feelings or as Tolle says an energy field that we experience.
We either allow them to pass through our own energy field or we choose to hold on and allow them to direct us in our thoughts, words, actions, and decision making.
We all have opinions, but it’s a trap if we identify it as our sense of self.
If someone fully identifies their opinions as their identity, they may argue, feel attacked, and in extreme form, make enemies.
Eckhart Tolle’s answer to this is to transcend our emotions and go to a deeper level within ourselves where our emotions have no power over us.
He says, “Become rooted in the deeper Presence of you. You’re suddenly free.
“Stillness is the absence of thoughts. Stillness, without falling asleep is conscious presence, welcome to you -your soul.”
Somewhere deep inside of us is a knowing.
When we hear something and know somewhere deep, down inside of us that it resonates with our core, we’ve discovered a part of us that cannot be consumed by our thoughts and identity.
Our conceptual mind is our knowing through thinking mind.
Meditation helps us to sidestep our conceptual mind and find that place within ourselves that author Gary Zukav refers to as “The Seat of the Soul.”
In other words, allow your emotions to flow through you rather than allowing them to unpack, move in and live ‘rent free’ in your head.
karenrestivo57@gmail.com