I’m now four weeks into an eight week mindfulness course with Cecilia Shefflin.
This week there was a particular focus on Aversion or what I refer to as Resistance – Resistance to our emotions.
No matter what the emotion even the positive ones, resisting it or not allowing ourselves to fully feel and live it in our bodies causes a certain level of discomfort – emotional and physical.
If we’re proud of a certain achievement, but don’t allow ourselves to fully celebrate it for fear of showing off, we’re missing the point of the achievement in the first place. The suppression of that unfelt joy causes tension in our minds and in our bodies.
When the emotion is not so nice, like anxiety or anger, we do our utmost to resist it, in the hope that it might dissipate. In fact the opposite is what actually happens. We’re striving to resist those emotions in our minds, when it’s that very resistance that adds to the stressed feeling.
What I’ve learned and what Cecilia comes back to again and again in her work is that the body knows a better way!
When we allow ourselves to feel every emotion and experience fully – good or bad – we’re bound to lead a more fulfilled life.
Catriona x.