They say an emotional trigger can hold its power over you for 15 minutes if you don’t fully associate or identify with its charge. Emotions are transient, forever ebbing and flowing, coming and going, looping and repeating. They are a feedback system with a great amount of information to teach us, but sometimes in our super busy fast paced world, we can’t be present with our emotions – we’ve got goals, plans, responsibilities and 100 emails waiting for us! Last week in my morning yoga I dedicated my practice to: Embrace. Embrace without using mind, thought or logic, but to fully breathe in and feel all feelings and emotions deeply – without resistance – to be with the energy of my feelings and move, breathe and become them. I felt amazing afterward. Incredibly clear, joyful and centered ready to take on my day. Have you ever tried to be with your emotions without attachment to them, but just simply embrace them, to move, breathe into, feel, and merge with all that they are and embody for 5 minutes?

Have you ever noticed that if you wake up feeling anxious, sad, angry or frustrated the energy of these emotions can sometimes hang around unsettling you for hours, if not all day? Resisting emotions can cause them to linger – like a distracting presence influencing the clarity of your mind, thoughts and actions. Some have suggested that emotions are past pains – separated aspects of ourselves seeking to be acknowledged and reunited with Self. What if sometime you try giving them just that? Simply give your feelings your full attention, without judgement, a story or attachment to them – but fully embrace them just as you would do if something felt good. We try not to feel what doesn’t feel good, but what if we embraced emotions like sadness, anxiety, frustration, and self-doubt and instead of resisting them we let them feel good? Here’s a poem I wrote 6 years to give ya an idea of what I mean:

Let It Feel Good

Embrace the rage pulsing through the body.

The fear, heartache whatever it may be.

Feel the fire inside and around you.

Open up to it and breathe it in, embrace it like you would an orgasm.

The heat of it.

Letting it build.

Feeling the rush of euphoric pleasure when it is released inside you.

Be with the Darkness – all the sense it enlivens.

Like an electric fire breathe it in, don’t shy away.

Don’t try to avoid it, distract yourself or try and numb the pain.

Don’t make excuses or try and blame it away.

Feel it as much as you can.

Face it. It is a lesson. Let it teach you.

Let it feel good.