I came home from my morning walk feeling all out of sorts. I’d woken up feeling fine, but as the morning progressed, little things were adding up leaving me feeling discombobulated and wanting to self-soothe.

As I got ready to take my morning shower and get ready for my day, I reached for my phone thinking some music might help me feel better. I thought about making myself a cup of tea to shake off the cobwebs and get my mind focused on what I really needed to do instead of whatever this was that felt irritating and annoying.

And then, I realized I was trying to push away and reflexively change how I was feeling because it felt uncomfortable and like it could impede productivity. Well, that was an old pattern I knew I was ready to challenge and transcend.

So, I did something simple yet revolutionary.

I put my phone down and stopped what I was doing. Then I took a slow, deep breath, and asked myself, “What am I feeling right now?”

I felt irritated.
I felt angry.
I felt like I couldn’t get comfortable in my body.
I felt hot.
I felt cranky.
I felt like I was itchy, but I wasn’t itchy.
I felt like throwing a tantrum.

This made me curious.

My mind wanted to know why I was feeling this way so that it could solve the discomfort and feel better right away – because discomfort makes us feel edgy and restless. And yet, I knew there was something more for me to uncover.

I took another breath and realized there was something more underneath my irritation and discomfort. As much as part of me didn’t want to, I knew that in order to access what was underneath it was important for me to marinate in the un-ease.

I took my shower and got dressed, all while staying present with that feeling. I kept asking, “What am I feeling right now?” and watched as the discomfort bounced around, got bigger, then smaller, then loud, then soft. It wasn’t easy to stay with feelings like these.

As I was putting on my make-up, I caught a glimpse of what was underneath the tension and unease I’d been feeling in my body.

Deep sadness
Oceans of grief
Defeat
Emptiness
Devastation
Not-knowing
Helplessness
Judgment
… and some overwhelm, too.

My mind wanted to immediately figure out why I was feeling all of this – again, so it could find a solution and make it better. These are big feelings and part of me feared they would pull me down into a pit of despair that I’d never climb out of again.

As big and dumbfounding as our emotions can feel sometimes, the truth is that they simply want to be acknowledged and felt. They’re not here to destroy you or derail you from your responsibilities. Instead, they’re filled with valuable information that is meant to empower and guide you to make the best decisions for yourself.

Yet most of us have fallen into the automatic habit of overriding, ignoring, denying, minimizing and judging our feelings. So, we don’t allow ourselves the opportunity to access the information and wisdom that is always available to us.

When we can create a new conscious habit of paying attention to, honoring and trusting our emotions, we’re given an incredible gift that we would have otherwise thrown away without ever opening.

Our feelings give us a way to access our deeper wisdom and knowing – something that we might pretend not to have or know anything about, but in truth is always there.

You always know. You always know what you want, what you need and even what the next step is. All you need to do is ask, listen, and trust. It will not let you down.

After decades of fighting and negotiating with my emotions, making myself wrong for feeling certain ways, and convincing myself that what I felt wasn’t important, or it was too confusing to trust, or that it wasn’t as important as what my mind was telling me, I’ve come to a place of deeply honoring what I feel.

I might still reflexively try to change it, or make it feel better, or want to run from what I feel – because old patterns run deep and sometimes feelings happen at really inconvenient times!

But I’ve come to a place of deep appreciation for this built-in navigation system that I have – we all have. It informs and guides me. It reveals truths to me that maybe I didn’t notice or want to see. It always serves me and never lets me down.

So…

I felt my grief and sadness.
I let the waves of not-knowing and helplessness move through my body.
I sat with the emptiness, fear, and defeat.

I set all judgment aside and spent a few minutes feeling, and then I felt a glow emerge inside of me. It was a slow-burning power that began to emanate from my belly and heart.

I felt a new clarity and desire begin to emerge. This was the gift that all of that discomfort, irritation, sadness and despair gave to me.

I took that power, clarity and desire with me into my day and let it ground and focus me in everything I did. I thought about how I could have wasted a lot of my energy trying to distract and push down those initial feelings that I’d been trying to run away from, and I felt proud of myself for turning towards instead of away from my feelings.

I felt incredible gratitude for my willingness to be with my unease, to stay curious and present with what was happening inside of myself, and to trust in the wisdom that wanted to emerge.

What wisdom is wanting to come forward for you?
What have you been overriding, ignoring, neglecting or fighting inside of yourself?
What could be possible for you if you opened that gift of clarity, wisdom and power?

There’s one way to find out…  xx

PS: Want to discover new ways of accessing your clarity, wisdom and power? Join my free online community to learn how.