Emotional Storms are Visitors, Master Your Oars

We’ve all had them. A rhythmic tide of emotional waves is part of the human experience. We get hit with feelings and urges, at times strong, intense and magnified, tensed like muscles flexing. Later, sometimes even within minutes, the wave recedes, the waters calm and the emotional muscles relax creating a whirlwind of experience in its wake. And how are we left? Therein lies the question of interest. The storms are inevitable, yet we endure them. 

How do we remain the ones who experience the storms rather than becoming the storms themselves? We can become the observers who interact with them. The emotions enter our sphere and our first task is to acknowledge them. We can tune into them and recognize that we see them as separate entities. “I see you, Anger, as visiting me, not as BEING me.” The practice of observation is what allows us to disidentify with our emotions. We give them a body elsewhere, as a metaphorical, energetic container to which we can refer and with whom we can engage. Anger just parked her car and she’s heading to the front door. I can pretend not to hear her knocks, scream at her to go away or open the door and let her in. This is how we begin to embody the belief that we are not our emotions. We don’t need to become the emotion itself. We ride it like a boat through a current and we have the oars. Yes there are natural occurrences causing the intensity of the ride. We may not control the current, the weather or the temperature, or even the quality of the boat, yet we have the paddles. How are you training yourself to steer the ship?