Follow The Feeling Process (For Transforming Your Negative Emotions) - Teal Swan

Hello everyone. We run from our feelings. Most of us would do almost anything to avoid being present with our emotions.

Most processes that are offered by the self-help community and the spiritual community are designed to help you deliberately change the emotions that you experience, not to feel them. And inherent in that is a kind of avoidance. So the process I'm going to give you today is going to enable you to drop into or move into those emotions, instead of avoid them.

Most of us follow a four-step process. Step 1. We experience something.

That experience causes us to move to step 2. Which is that we tell a story about whatever it is that we've experienced. That story is a set of beliefs.

From that set of beliefs is born step 3, our emotions. Our emotions reflect the thoughts that we're thinking because of the experience we experienced. Then step 4.

We exhibit a behavior as a result of those emotions. But most of us jump straight from step 1 to step 4. We go straight from having the experience to exhibiting the behavior.

Meanwhile we skip over the thoughts we're thinking about the experience and we skip over the emotions we're feeling about the experience. But all of your healing is going to take place from those two steps. Let me explain further.

Step 1. I get into an argument with my boyfriend or girlfriend. Step 2.

This causes me to tell stories like this: It's always like this. They're going to leave me. I'm not going to end up with anyone.

I'm gonna die alone. Guys are such assholes. Women are such bitches.

Step 3. Your emotion and your feelings reflect those stories. You feel depressed, hopeless and maybe panicked.

Step 4. That emotion translates to a feeling in your body and an uncomfortable one at that. So you try to get away from it as fast as you can.

You drink alcohol or you cut yourself or you binge eat. The thing is this process happens so fast that you most likely did not even noticed step 2 and step 3. And you sure as hell did not take time to be present with step 2 or step 3, present enough to recognize the thoughts or to intentionally move deeper into the emotions and feelings that were present with you as a result of the experience.

Instead you got into a fight with your girlfriend or boyfriend and you immediately jumped step 2 and step 3 and simply drink alcohol or cut yourself or binge eat. True healing always comes from step 2 and step 3, from experiencing your thoughts, from recognizing them, from deliberately changing them, so that your experience changes as a result of changing those thoughts, and also from noticing and experiencing the feelings that you're feeling, from moving directly towards those emotions and allowing those emotions to transform themselves. We've been telling a lie in the spiritual community and in the self-help community.

And the lie is there is only bliss in the now. This is actually not the case. It can be true that when you come to the now, there may be a great many sensations and feelings that are present that are not exactly pleasant to experience.

For example, we may have lost someone recently. So when we come to the present moment we may be feeling a sensation of grief, a tightening in our chest, a constricting sensation, a feeling of sinking, the feeling of depression. that is present in the now within your body.

All that truly is present in the moment is feeling. The thoughts we have in the stories we tell about the way we feel they take you out of the present moment. They're stories about you, stories about me, stories about the future, stories about the past.

They're all belief systems which don't exist in the now. There is a difference between emotion and feeling. And it is important to understand the difference.

Both feelings and emotions cause you to behave in certain ways. Feelings are a state of consciousness where you are perceiving. It is a state of awareness.

And that which you are perceiving translates as a sensation. In the physical world, that sensation is translated through your sensory organs of sight, sound, touch, taste, smell and emotions. Feelings being a state of consciousness extend beyond the physical body.

This is why you still have feelings while having out-of-body experiences. The conscious ego interprets the feeling and turns that feeling into meaning. Such as this feeling means I need to run away.

Emotions however are limited to the physical dimension. They are the byproduct of thinking a thought, which causes the body to release hormones and neurotransmitters, which cause reactions or sensations within the body that you experience as a temporary emotion such as happy or scared. There are feedback system to the body much like the gas gauge on your car.

Emotions are only a part of feelings. They are a byproduct of feelings. Remember that feelings are a perceptive state of consciousness.

When you feel your emotions, you are in essence, perceiving your own physiological reaction to your thoughts. And your thoughts dictate your vibration. So when you are feeling your emotions, you are perceiving your body's translation of your vibration.

Interestingly, you can use emotions to step into feeling. So let's say you have an emotion like sadness. You can state "I'm sad.

" Then you can use it to step into the feeling by saying, "What does sadness feel like in my body? " One of the major problems we have with mental health in our world today is the fact that we try to help people escape from their emotions and from their feelings. We numb them out with prescription medication.

We can't imagine that these feelings and these emotions might actually be serving a purpose, many in fact. We don't understand that by moving into feelings they will transform on their own. And we tell people that the reason they feel the way they feel is because their brain is defective, because they have a disorder.

This could not be further from the truth. There's another lie we like to tell, which is that feelings won't change unless you deliberately change them. The truth is, all you need to do is release resistance to the feelings that you feel.

So how do we do that? Instead of running away from them, which is a form of avoidance, which is a form of resistance, -and we all know that whatever you resist persists. - you turn the other way and you go in the direction of them.

You drop into your emotions. You move into your emotions. You fully let yourself experience being in and of them.

If you observe a feeling and let yourself be conscious of feeling it completely, it always changes on its own just by virtue of your observation and experience of it. Then your only job is to follow the way that it changes and drop into that new feeling. Breathe into that feeling.

And when that new feeling changes, follow it again. Move into it consciously letting ourself feel and breathe into that new feeling. We do this until the feeling changes into something that we can identify as a positive better feeling sensation.

Ironically, if you keep doing this or you follow the new sensation and you follow the new sensation as it changes when you experience it, eventually there will be no more layers to shed and you'll be left with the true essence of who you really are. This is what most spiritual teachers mean when they say "Come be in the present moment where no time exists. You are only left with the mighty I AM presence.

" You can do this process wherever and on whatever feeling that comes up. There's not one feeling that's exempt from the power of this particular process. So when you feel strong negative emotion arise within you or positive because you could milk that for all its worth as well, you stop where you are and you let yourself move into that sensation.

You're fully observing it. You're immersing yourself in it. You're letting it overtake you.

You're surrendering to that emotion. You want to list what it feels like mentally to yourself. Describe what that sensation is like.

What does it feel like? What does it look like? Don't do anything to deliberately change it.

Just stay with it and notice it shifting. If it does not shift, give it some room to shift by breathing into the feeling and or expanding the sensation outwards into the room. So you are in it and surrounded by it.

It will transform on its own when you give it this kind of room. Then your job is to purely chase or follow each sensation as it shifts as many times as it does shift until you arrive at the feeling in the present moment that feels good to experience. An interesting part about this process that I want you to take note of is that when you're in the middle of it and your mind tries to pull you back out of the sensation into the stories, it's doing this as a measure of self-preservation.

Your ego doesn't really want to feel those uncomfortable feelings. Because it associates discomfort with I'm not going to live. So it's going to move you in the opposite direction of that.

So when your brain tries to do that in the middle of this process, instead of trying to get yourself to go back to the original thing that you were thinking about or back to the last thing you were thinking of, I want you to just come back into the room exactly where you are right here and now and observe whatever new feeling is present within your body right here and continue with the process. I want you to do this if your mind has taken you off into a story, into your belief systems, if it's trying to explain the meaning behind the visualizations that you're receiving throughout this process or if you get lost in visual imagery. Some of these sensations will truly be ineffable, meaning that you can't describe them.

That's okay. We're just using the description as a means of moving you further into the experience. So if you can't describe what it is your feeling, that doesn't matter as much as you experiencing the feeling that you're feeling.

For some of us, we will be able to follow the sensation and then the next sensation and then the next sensation as it shifts. For those of us that are really cerebral creatures, very mental, our sensations might be preceded by an image that represents the feeling that your body is exhibiting. So instead of getting lost in that visual image, you can use it to drop further into the feeling.

So let's say that the visual image comes up, a symbolic image. You can say "What does that image feel like in my body? " instead of getting lost in the story or lost in that visual image which has come up.

To demonstrate how this process is going to work, I'm going to move someone, Graciela through this process. So you're going to be watching a play by play of me interacting with her. In real life, you can get someone to do this for you or you can do it for yourself by playing both parts.

I just want to show you how this works. I want to remind you that what we're about to do is a real time thing. So we haven't prepared for this at all.

I don't even know what she's going to say. This is how you really work with emotion. So to begin with, we want to ask Graciela here, what it is that she has been experiencing.

That will help us to come up with whatever emotion it is that she is currently going through. You can do it whenever you're hit by something specifically like an experience or you can just do it in the moment for no reason whatsoever. This always works regardless of why you're doing it.

But to start with, so. . .

G: Well, I basically found out that my dad's been really emotionally abusive so that's the emotion I'm going to go in to. T: OK. Alright.

So what I want you to do is to start off by paying attention to your body. So you can either do this with eyes open or eyes closed. And what I want you to do is to feel what that feeling feels like and describe it to me.

G: Anxiety, panic. T: OK. So what does anxiety and panic feel like sensationalize in your body?

G: Like a tingling. My fingers are cold. It's hard to breathe.

I just kind of want to run away. T: You can do a body scan through your whole body and just notice the ways that that emotion and feeling are expressing itself in the physical body. G: My body is shaking.

T: OK. So what I want you to do is to move in the direction of that shaking. Just surrender to it, go towards it and allow it to completely envelop you.

See, we're not doing anything deliberately to change this emotion or the sensation. We're literally observing it and being in it and that's it. We're going to allow the emotion to change on its own, which it will.

So is it shifting? If so, what's it shifting into? G: It's more a calmer feeling.

But it's still shaky kind of like a wave. T: OK. So you're getting an image of a wave?

G: I am getting the image of the wave. T: Perfect. So now that we have that image of a wave, I want you to drop into how that wave feels like in your body.

G: It feels heavy like it's crushing me. T: Good. Move in the direction of that feeling.

Let it crush you. Go all the way through the experience of that heaviness. G: My mind doesn't want to let me go into it.

It kind of goes in and out. T: So when that's the case, what you want to do when you're going into it, is to breathe into that sensation simultaneously while you're moving in the direction of it. T: So is it shifting or is it not shifting yet?

G: It's not shifting. My body kind of is just numb. T: Okay.

Perfect. So this is what you do. If you're sitting with the feeling and it won't shift on its own, what I want to do is breathe it into the rest of the room.

So these sensations are contained within your body and that can be like its own kind of prison for these feelings. So you want to, as you're breathing, imagine expanding this emotion or this feeling and sensation out into the room so it's both in and around you. But by doing that, you're giving it the space for it to transform and you'll notice that it does that quickly after you do that process.

G: The image changed to almost like a walk in the park. But it still feels kinda heavy. T: Okay.

So keep going with what does that walk in the park feel like in your body besides the heaviness. Tell me more about the sensation. G: It feels like I'm forcing myself to walk in the park.

Like, I really don't want to be there. T: OK. So what does 'I don't want to be there' feel like in the body?

G: Heavy. T: Cause see, she just got lost in mental story. That's exactly what I was explaining before, whereat the mind will try to take you off into a story about the feeling rather than let you experience the sensation of that feeling.

Thank you ego for trying to protect us. So you can either go. .

. So like right now, basically if your mind took you off on that tangent and you're finding that it's difficult for you to be in that emotion, G: Yeah. It's still kinda numb.

T: So come back to the room. Open your eyes. Now close your eyes and go into whatever feelings present in your body right now.

So we're not concerned with that whole process we went through. We're starting over from this moment. Cause the feeling, the vibration has shifted and so the vibration we started out with is not the vibration she's in now.

So that actually isn't starting over fresh. You're starting over from the point that your body is at vibrationally right now as the feeling has transformed itself. G: Right now I'm kind of dizzy.

T: Perfect. Alright. So move into that dizziness.

T: Let it just completely twist and turn you. What does that feel like? G: It's confusing.

T: You think confusion is an accurate word to describe this emotion? G: It's confusing because it's kind of like I don't know what to think but. .

. T: Perfect. So what does not knowing what to think feel like in your body?

What sensations come up? You have colors? Some people have colors.

They feel textures. There's any number of ways. Sounds sometimes come across.

G: I'm still really cold. My hands and feet are cold. T: So would you say that the coldness is the most predominant feeling in your body?

G: Yes. T: OK. Move into the cold.

You see, all she's doing is following the sensation as it shifts. G: My mind won't let me go in there. This won't let me go into the cold.

T: That's a story. So come back into the now. Now go back into whatever you're feeling right here and now in your body.

G: Now it's cold, but it's not overwhelming. It's calmer. T: Do you get images?

G: No, not really. T: OK. So it's calmer but it's still that cold feeling.

So this time, go into that feeling. Be with that feeling. Be completely present with it.

Let it be inside you and of you and around you. G: I'm getting an image now. T: What is it?

G: Me and Snow with a big jacket on. T: Perfect. So with that you want to drop into what that image feels like to you in your body.

How does that image translate into sensations? Knowing of course that some of these sensations will be ineffable, meaning you can't really describe them, we're just using her descriptions to move her further into the feelings even if they are not describable. G: Well, it feels safer than before.

But it's more of a worry now. T: OK. Alright.

So worry. . .

What does worry feel like in your body? G: Run away. T: What does run away feel like in your body?

G: Like I want to move, run somewhere. I want to run somewhere. T: So you feel that vibrational urging kind of.

G: Yes. T: Hard to resist, right? G: Yes.

T: So drop in the direction of that while you're breathing into it. If you need to expand that feeling into the rest of the room, give it space to change itself. G: It's anger now.

T: Good. That was a good shift. OK.

So we start. . .

So now we're at anger. What does anger feel like in your body? I'm visually watching it in your face right now.

What's it feel like in your face? G: My face got tighter. Breathing got harder.

I want to punch something. T: So we've got another urge. G: Yeah.

T: What else does it feel like in the rest of your body? Just do a scan. G: Tighter.

My body got tighter. T: So tightness. We have a good target.

So go into the tightness feeling. Locate that and move into it like it was a place to move into. Breathe in that feeling like you are accepting it.

Not even accepting it, approving of it, not even approving of it, wanting it. T: Is it shifting? G: A little bit.

It's not it's angry. T: So what would you say it feels like now? G: More stable.

T: Good. So the feeling of stability. What does that feel like in your body when you feel stable.

G: Grounded. T: What does grounded feel like? Because we're using the emotion to drop into the sensation, the feeling.

G: It feels like my body is heavy. T: But is it a good heavy or is it an unpleasant heavy? G: No, it's good heavy.

Like a grounding like. . T: Good.

Move into that feeling. G: Feels I'm a block almost. T: OK.

So that feeling of being a block and being grounded. Go into that feeling. Let it completely immerse your being.

You have no resistance to it. You're going to be with it as long as you need to be. And breathe in there.

T: Now what does it shifted into? G: More peaceful. I got an image of like skipping.

T: Okay. Perfect. So what does that image feel like in your body?

G: Happy. T: What does happy feel like in the body? Does happy have a texture for you?

Does it have a color? Does it have a way that it feels? G: It feels like joy in my heart.

I want to skip. T: OK. So in your heart.

. . Let's go for the sensation cause we labeled it again.

Joy. G: Okay. T: What does joy feel like in your heart?

How can you tell that that's joy sensation-wise? G: A warmer feeling. Like a glee.

Does that make sense? T: So you went up with that. Does that mean the sensation is sort of an uplifting vibration.

G: Yes. T: OK. So sit there with that emotion.

Breathe that into and of your being out into the room all of that. And what you can choose to do, would you say that this is a positive vibration? G: Yes.

T: OK. So come back into the room then. I want to explain that you can milk this as long as you want to.

Meaning they really could be no end to you following the trail of what these sensations and feelings shift into when you follow them. But because we got Graciela here to a positive emotion, a positive feeling, we can stop there. Because the agenda we had was to transform the feeling by virtue of non-resistance.

So paying attention to your body right now, how do you feel relative to how you felt when you first stood here when we started the process? G: Lighter like I want to move around. Smiley.

T: Perfect. So this is exactly what I mean. We didn't do anything.

Did you notice? We didn't evoke a process to try to change the vibrations and change the feeling on our own. What we did is we let ourselves experience the emotions and they shifted on their own.

They shifted of their own volition. They shifted by virtue of our paying attention to them, by releasing resistance to them, by fully experiencing them. Feelings were meant to be experienced, not numbed out, ignored or run away from.

At the root of all impulsive behaviors is a basic unwillingness to experience the way that you feel, your emotions, your sensations. But it's extremely important to move in the direction of those feelings, to let yourself feel them. If you spend your life avoiding them, then you will have all kinds of unexplained behaviors for the rest of your life that you have no control over.

Because you don't understand that you don't have to run away from these emotions. They aren't actually going to do anything to you. This is how to reach a state of enlightenment in waking life.

If you understand your emotions don't have any power over you, they're just information, very important information that you are perceiving in your waking life, then you won't be in the process of running away from anything. You can become a true ascended master who is able to transcend the impulses, who is able to transcend the urges and instead act on inspiration. It's very important that we learn how to release resistance to our feelings enough to experience them.

And it's also important that we understand that you don't need to do anything to change your emotions. If you allow yourself to release resistance enough to experience them, they'll change on their own. Have a good week.