As I was reading the post I wrote in December, I realized that I had been thinking about feelings/emotions from only the viewpoint of someone who is in touch with their spirit or subconscious and can recognize when an emotion is ego-based. I realized that not everyone (in fact, I think most people) can distinguish between a feeling/emotion that is coming from the spirit vs. coming from the ego (subconscious). I realized this as I was helping a friend who shared a problem with me about an emotion they were having and didn't know what to do about it. They, like most people, wanted to know what herbs/supplements to take to get rid of the unwanted/unpleasant emotion (anxiety).
I wish our society wasn't one that encourages people to seek quick fixes to things that aren't pleasant. There are probably lots of people who are on anti-depressant medication who just need to take a step back and get in touch with their spirit and meditate to figure out WHY they're feeling depressed or have anxiety NOT to push away what their spirit might be trying to tell them. (The alternative I see many people do is self medicate by drinking or drugging away their uncomfortable emotions). We can't be afraid of unpleasant emotions and delving in to discover why we're feeling them. It's how we grow.
I said in my Dec. post that feelings are your spirit's way of telling you yes, you're on the right track, or no, that's not right for you. However, feelings are not always right. In other words, feelings do not always accurately reflect what your spirit wants or is trying to tell you. Feelings can also come from your ego (usually those based in fear).
I've heard from some credible, well-known authors & public speakers that there are 2 fundamental emotions: love & fear. All emotions can be boiled down to one of these. This makes it easy to figure out what negative emotion it is in your subconscious that's causing you to feel unpleasant.
In my friend's case, his emotion, anxiety, was coming from his ego. Without revealing the situation, basically, he wasn't feeling anxiety because he was not on the right track/path, but because he encountered a new (good) situation that his ego was fearful of. New experiences are often scary, and if you are in touch with/aware of your emotions, you can realize it's fear that you're feeling and you can work on overcoming the fear. He did not realize it was fear (still doesn't ;) at least not that he was willing to admit to me (the problem that comes with helping friends, ha). It's impossible to work on overcoming or dealing with an emotion if you don't know, can't recognize, or won't admit what it is. The problem is that we have a conscious and a sub-conscious. The only way I know of to recognize/discover what emotion is in your subconscious that's causing you to feel a certain way in your conscious is to meditate. (what ISN'T meditation good for?!)
Btw, I love that when I put it out there to the universe that I want to help people, it sends me people who can benefit from my abilities, knowledge, experience (and/or whom I can benefit from by helping). I notice this happens with my healer friends too. I am always learning and I continue to learn TO help people BY helping people. That's why I love teaching so much.
Since it can be very difficult to delve into your unpleasant subconscious, here is an inspiring quote for ya...
"Each time you try something scary or challenging and pull it off, you put another feather in your courage cap" Morgan Freeman.
