You Are Safe
One of the teachings Matt Kahn spoke about really struck a chord with me: You are Safe!
He states that the core of each fear, each excuse, each reaction that we have is the belief that we are not safe.
However, he also rightly states that if you are taking the time to read this, you are not being chased by a lion, escaping a fire or flood, or currently receiving CPR.
If you were in an unsafe situation, you would not be able to read and comprehend. You could not feel emotions, no matter how good or bad. If you were unsafe, one hundred percent of your focus would be on survival.
If you have ever experienced, or comforted someone who is experiencing a panic attack, you may have noticed that they arise “out of nowhere” when things are safe and calm. Of course, it doesn’t feel safe and calm. It feels like a heart attack, but the body and brain know that to keep you safe, a delayed reaction is key.
There is not a feeling or emotion that is unsafe for you to experience. You can get angry and rage! You can be disappointed. You can feel hurt. You can feel grief and sadness.
We are souls living in human bodies in order to have a human experience. The human experience is not complete without negative emotions and experiences as well as positive.
I remember a “normal” day in my junior year of high school feeling happier than I had ever felt before. I was walking through campus between classes with joy welling up inside me to a level I hadn’t before experienced. I remember being shocked by it. It wasn’t because I just aced a test. The boy I had a crush on hadn’t just asked me out. I hadn’t just landed the lead in the musical, but I had this wave of overwhelming joy! And, like ALL emotions, the whole shebang started and finished within a 90 second window.
Unfortunately, in the two years before feeling that extreme joy, (sometime after my dad told us his body was succumbing to the cancer within it), I felt the low, equal in depth and intensity to the joyous high I experienced my junior year.
And so it is...these 90-second waves of emotion don’t hit us when we aren’t safe to feel them. They come later.
And what Matt Kahn gleaned was that each emotion we feel is not just for us, but for the collective. When we rage, we are raging for humanity. When we feel love, or pride, or sadness, or grief, or perturbedness, it is for the greater whole. Emotions aren’t good or bad. They are human. We are meant to experience all emotions. Our bodies make sure we are safe so that we can fully experience them.
The problem comes when we stifle them, pushing them down and down and down and down. All those 90 second rides of emotion become hours, days, years...even decades of repressed emotions. Then they become tender, reacting to the slightest triggers – leaving you feeling out-of-control. Shame gives way to blame. Protecting wounds becomes a full-time job. And all of that pent up emotion brings dis-ease, and if it’s covered up, releasing in spurts like a pressure cooker...eventually, disease.
So, what is the angel message?
Feel your feelings. The peak of each emotion lasts for seconds before dissipating again. The more of us who feel our feelings- the good, the bad, and the ugly ones- the more permission we give to others to feel their feelings without shame. We will all be healthier: emotionally, mentally, and physically!
And, if you have been burying your feelings for a long time and need help releasing them, don’t hesitate to seek help from a licensed therapist, a support group, an energy healing session, or all the above. You are safe and you deserve a safe space to feel and process your feelings.
