Day 59 - A Year to Clear - Space Clearing in a Nutshell

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Lesson 59: Space Clearing in a Nutshell

“Directing our attention and allowing the feelings to arise without doing anything to fix, manage or resist them, automatically changes the energy in the space.

This is space clearing in a nutshell.”

— Stephanie Bennett Vogt

I definitely feel like I’ve gone through a lesson quite similar to this one. It’s about drawing awareness to the feelings that arise when you’re trying to clear and allowing them to just flow. No matter how uncomfortable you may feel, it’s about embracing what comes and then release the thought or item, if needed. I believe I usually get a bit uppity when I have a large task to tackle, but lately with releasing thoughts, I embrace the truths that I need to, and then let go. It’s been healing for me, and I believe that’s because I am changing as a person, so a lot of thoughts and memories that I release, are those that don’t hold a positive purpose. I definitely feel “my space” changing as I am slowly transforming into a better version of myself. Even though what I'm facing can be confronting, I know it's something I have to face before it's release and I'm totally okay with it. I don't even care that I get uncomfortable anymore. I know the benefits I will gain by facing what I need to and letting go. When these lessons talk about feeling lighter, I know I definitely feel some weights lifted. It's kind of a refreshing feeling and I can only imagine the day when everything that needs to go, will go.

Day 59 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - There are Four Passages

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Lesson 59: There are four passages..

Today is focused on our hearts and that four passages exist within our heart. Those four passages are “pain, compassion, connection and love”. Each of these passages free flow into the next and when I look at this, it’s never ending and infinite.

Today’s exercise is to focus on the pain aspect of these four passages. The question posed is “Does the passage into pain sound like it will hurt?”. There is reassurance that it will not and it will be a relief to release all the pain.

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I personally feel like pain does hurt. I think it’s good to experience it because you know how to handle it if another instance were to occur. I think pain hurts in those instances that people have really wronged you especially when a trust is broken. I think it’s good to feel the pain, but not necessarily wallow in it forever. If we don’t go through the motions of pain, then it doesn’t build us to be stronger people when faced with it in another situation.

I know that relief does come with the release of pain. You definitely feel lighter, though I feel this only comes when you’ve dealt with those emotions and are ready to let go. We need to experience pain in order to gain insight for not only yourself but others. I think we can share advice only if we’ve got some basis that we’ve learned from. We’re better equipped for other experiences in pain by learning from our initial understanding.

Again, I’m not sure I agree with today’s lesson. Totally agree that release of pain gives relief but still believe pain hurts when I have been truly wronged. I guess it’s one of those subjects where you’re either for or against it.

Day 58 - A Year to Clear - Noticing Knots

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Lesson 58: Noticing Knots

Today is about being aware of the sensations as you complete the following statement:

• Something that worries me about my______[fill in the blank: health, finances, career, family, relationship with X]

Did you notice a rise in heart rate, did you start to sweat in your hands, did you get flustered or feel a knot forming in your tummy? Whatever you may have felt, Stephanie mentions are stress hormones and it’s a good thing to catch before they are triggered.

I think I completed that sentence with the word “life” which is a bit ambiguous but I wasn’t really concentrating and letting whatever flowed to my head come about. I didn’t feel any sensations arise but I did think what kind of silly thought is this. I think I just need to trust more that it will work out.

The thing about this lesson was that Stephanie did not mention how to catch these before being triggered. I wonder if that’s in lessons to come, but I feel like today’s lesson may be just to be aware of what’s going on in the body before actually going onto dealing with the emotion. I guess we’ll find out.

Day 58 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - Emotions are Like Sails

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Lesson 58: Emotions are like sails...

“Lesson 58: Emotions are like waves, but they are also like sails; they must be adjusted as each breath of wind arrives. Tighten them too far, and the boat capsizes. Let them out too fast, the result is the same. Learning to sail with your emotions is one of your lessons in this lifetime.”

— Sara Wiseman

So this lesson very much advises how we can be in control of our emotions, letting go when we needed though not too fast and knowing when it’s a time for release. It’s about creating the right balance within ourselves in order to steer ourselves in the right direction.

The exercise today is to think of something that makes you cry and then think of something that makes you extremely happen. Rinse and repeat this 6 times, 12 times, 50 times etc throughout the day. The point is to use this tool to find your ability to shift with “conscious intention”.

I personally don’t have anything that makes me cry at present.  I did however looked at something that made me angry and then filtered to something that makes me happy. My angry emotion usually comes up in relation to my work situation. Something that makes me extremely happy is going to see live music. At first when I was practising this exercise all I could feel was residual anger flow into my happy memory. That was uncomfortable. When I closed my eyes and tried again, there wasn’t as much anger flowing into my happy memory. It really takes some practise to switch off from one emotion to the next one. Clearly this will take time but it’s something that I have never tried, so I’m open to the possibilities. See how you go with it. It’s very challenging – not going to lie.

Day 57 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - We May Be Grounded

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Lesson 57: We may be grounded...

“Lesson 57: We may be grounded in earth body, but our heart is what rules us. Our emotions are mutable, changeable, fickle, not to be trusted. Yet, at the same time, they are deep, profound, breathtaking. Our emotions always change, shift, move, like breezes in the wind, waves in the ocean. There is no time this is not true.”

— Sara Wiseman

Today is about thinking about how we use our feelings. Are they controlling us? Are we controlling them? Do we have the ability to let it wash over you or do you let them sink in? Then we are to look at emotions always being in “State of flux” and we must use them differently to that of a static tool.

To start off, I’m not sure about the line involving that our emotions are “not to be trusted”. That would insist that people need to have certain emotions towards things when in fact, it’s their reaction to a certain situation which is uniquely their own, given the circumstance. It’s a product of a person’s reality and therefore no one should be telling someone else what emotional reaction to have. I really hope you reading this makes sense – it makes sense in my head but may not be conveyed. I get what the lesson is trying to teach, but to specifically say not to trust your emotions, doesn’t seem like good advice in my opinion. Everyone is entitled to an emotional reaction that is comfortable and/or uncomfortable to them.

Moving onto feelings and emotions. I find them to be two different things though they are always intersected with one another. They definitely go hand in hand but are actually two different things. Emotions are your body reacting physically or instinctively where as feelings are thoughts in our minds created through experience. This table taken from http://www.laughteronlineuniversity.com/feelings-vs-emotions/ really sums it up.

 

Feelings vs Emotions

So in identifying the differences, is this exercise about emotions or feelings? Or both? I feel like feelings are more in a state of flux and these are what can wash over you or sink in based on an external circumstance. I didn’t mean to go into this type of depth with today’s lesson, but I felt it needed to be addressed. We can control our feelings I think. We have the power to let it absorb into our mind and/or work with it in recognising it’s there and move it along if needed. If I’m feeling bitter for instance, what caused this bitterness, is there a lesson to be learned and can I move on from it? If someone held a gun to my head, that triggers my emotional fear response in which my body reacts to. I don’t necessarily feel like all feelings should be washed over you. For instance, I’d like love to sink in. I mean, it could wash over me as well as sink in because I wouldn’t want it to just go away.

Clearly I have struggled with this lesson because my mindset is just different to what it’s trying to teach. I feel like I disagree with some of the things that are said. Obviously some of the bad feelings should be a wash over and you have the power to control it. However, the good feelings should be here to stay, wouldn’t you think? I think we are the holders of the tool of our feelings and we should definitely work with what feel. It’s up to us how much we let feelings take over. Sometimes I think emotions cannot be controlled because they are deeply rooted in our make up as humans. It’s more so that some people have different levels of emotions to different things and subsequent feelings take over after the emotional response.

Hope I haven’t confused people too much.