Through spiritual means
YouTube: Emotional Independence Through Spiritual Means
When many of us think of self-help as a means of improving our life through changing our attitude, we may focus mainly on our thinking. As important as this is, we do well to consider our emotions and who or what is controlling them. Is it even possible to choose how we feel, or are we satisfied to let the world make this choice for us?
I have pointed out that we can change our thinking but still feel as if bad things are brewing, like being caught in an undercurrent that pulls us out into water way over our heads. We may scarcely be aware of this emotional riptide until we suddenly notice how far from shore we are. Then, it doesn’t take much to send us into a fear-based reaction to the smallest of things.
How do we gain emotional independence? The first step is to realize we can. The emotions we harbor are of our own choosing. If we do not accept this as a fundamental fact, then the world will choose our emotions for us. And we all know what that is like.
The second step is to ask ourselves how we would feel if this emotionally unsettling appearance was resolved. We allow ourselves to experience the emotional release into the serenity of feeling all is well. Freedom, peace, joy, and new creative stirrings take the place of emotionally induced stress. Maybe not instantly, but we can get there.
When Jesus spoke of the truth that sets us free, the freedom we long for is first felt at the emotional level. We might think of it as unconditional emotion, feelings that arise, not because of a positive turn of events, but because we feel blessed to simply be alive. In this case, our emotion is prompted by an inner knowing, the stabilizing awareness that we are part of something much grander than our ever-changing surroundings.
We can gain emotional independence, first by realizing we can, and secondly by learning to feel the freedom we desire. Check yourself at the feeling level now. How would you feel if all your life’s burdens were suddenly lifted?