With any problem we wish to resolve, we need to know what the elements of the problem are in order to find a solution and make a change. Resolving emotional blocks, and thus improving our mind and mood, requires the same type of effort. Bottom line, we need to be able to see the truth about what we’re feeling to make any sort of change in how we feel.
For most, suppressing emotion is normal, and that’s simply because most of us lack training on how to identify emotions. As we seek to better understand how we feel, we generally start down the path of resolution. That’s why step one involves identifying key, unhappy emotions (such as fear, terror, guilt, shame, anger, sadness, etc.). Consider you’re looking for a leak in a broken faucet. You’ve got to find the leak to fix it. There could be more than one. Which emotion is a leak for you? See if you can figure it out and then write it down!
Learning to identify emotions is what we call, “Emotional Intelligence” and the great news for all of us is that emotional intelligence isn’t predetermined like our IQ is determined. It’s something we can develop and expand. Today, studies show that emotional intelligences is more important than IQ when it comes to our ability to succeed in the workplace and relationships. Truly, developing and enhancing our EQ is essential for our long-term happiness.
In today’s world, many feel that they can hide their emotions and get away with it. Surprising to some, that doesn’t work. That’s because most of what we communicate is nonverbal. It doesn’t matter what we say, it matters who we are and how we act. People perceive more from our overall message, which includes our non-verbal cues, than they do from the actual words we speak. You know the drill, someone tells you they aren’t angry, but you can feel their boiling inside. Or the used car salesman tells you that he’s offering you the lowest deal he’s ever offered, but you can sense he says that to everyone. Not much slides past our human instinct, when we’re paying attention. That’s why becoming in touch with our emotional responses means everything when it comes to our ability to navigate through our world and create joy and happiness.
When we have deep seeded emotions that are causing us long term pain and suffering, managing our emotions is like trying to hold a giant beach ball underwater. It takes an exuberant amount of energy, and success is temporary and mostly unsuccessful. Suppressing unhealthy emotions feels like this, and doing so has consequences. Burying our potent unhappy feelings often leaves us with underlying issues that can include health consequences. It’s true that every thought we think turns into a neuropeptide and stores in parts of our bodies, so every thought and feeling we have has a physical effect on our body.
Ultimately, taking the first step of “seeing the truth” about what you're feeling will launch you toward a solution. That’s because awareness is more than half the battle. Thankfully, many of our struggles just fade away when we come to understand what’s going on inside of us. We are all going through the same thing, just a different story, meaning we are all experiencing the same gamut of both pleasant and unpleasant emotions. Since today people tend to experience more negative emotions than positive emotions on a regular basis, now more than ever is the time to become more self-aware.
Seeing how our emotions are a natural part of our human body, we can use nature's resources, such as essential oils, to aid our emotional process. Using essential oils can be helpful to enhance and/or shift how we feel at any given moment. They can help us as we seek to uncover what we’re often suppressing. A few of my favorites for helping to prepare us to see the truth are: