I hope you are enjoying this new series of articles on entering the flow. We’ve already discussed the subconscious mind, our thinking and our beliefs and how we can use these to enter the flow. Now let’s enter the realm of emotions. Emotions are complex entities to define. Essentially, they are the language of the soul and how we communicate with our Higher Self, also known as soul, spirit or consciousness. Emotions are how our physically incarnate self experiences life here on earth.

There are a wide variety of emotions that we can experience in our lives from despair to ecstasy and everything else in between, and most of us do. The problem arises when we only seek to experience the positive emotions such as joy and happiness. By nature of being human, we are going to experience negative emotions at some point in our lives and probably more than we want to. The problem arises when we try to resist these negative emotions because they are too painful.

Yes, negative emotions will cause pain, however, resisting them will transmute the pain into suffering. As a human being, pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. We will all experience pain but we don’t have to suffer. This is why we need to feel all of our emotions regardless of how painful they may be. If we don’t then they will get trapped in our body and lead to perpetual suffering. In fact, trapped emotions are the source of many of our mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, other mood disorders and even addiction. Unfortunately, most mental health professionals deal with these mental health disorders at the level of the mind and not at their root of emotions, which is why few people heal from mental health conditions.

What happens when you allow yourself to fully feel a negative emotion? It can be described by the metaphor of a hurricane. In a hurricane you are pummelled with heavy rain gale force winds which can disorient you so you are lost in the midst of the hurricane. The same is true of negative emotions, which can also pummel you with their onslaught. However, what happens when you allow yourself to experience the hurricane without resistance? Eventually you will get to the eye of the hurricane, which is calm and serene. The same is true of negative emotions, that you allow yourself to experience fully. You will eventually get to a place of inner peace and serenity.

This is how emotions can get you into the flow, if you allow yourself to experience them fully. The same is true of positive emotions, as they should also be experienced and enjoyed to their full extent. Resisting them will have the same effect as resisting negative emotions. The question then arises, how do you go about allowing yourself to experience negative emotions that you have resisted in the past? This will be the topic of the next article.

In the meantime, make a list of all the emotions that you have felt in the last 48 hours. What have you been feeling? How have you been navigating the uncertain landscape of your feelings? What are your emotions trying to tell your Higher Self? What message can you decipher from how you are feeling? These are the questions you must ask if you want to dive deeper into the realm of emotion and enter the flow.

This the second gateway to enter the flow and must be mastered to lay the foundation for subsequent challenges that you are bound to face in the journey of life. Master your emotions and you will enter the flow and navigate your life with greater ease. Feeling all of your emotions may seem scary at first so, in next week’s article, I will discuss this in more detail.

Dr. Nauman Naeem