Releasing Negative Emotions
As you are in the last week of January and wrapping up this first month of the year, are you still carrying around anger, disappointment, frustration or other negative emotions about someone who has done something to cause you pain, harm or hurt? If so, perhaps it is time to release those negative emotions from your heart and your mind – to stop letting them have power over you, taking up space in your heart and in your mind (thinking about it all the time).
Recently I went through a situation where the actions of someone cased a lot of pain and hurt to me and several others. I was outraged, angry, and basically just pissed off! Yet, I could do nothing about it, I could not correct the situation. I carried that anger around for a while and the anger changed to complete disappointment and it was still constantly on my mind and my heart still hurts.
I went through this for several months, talked with others who were impacted and all that did for me was to keep me in pain and fired up. I realized that since it is a situation about which I could do nothing to resolve it, it was taking up a LOT of space in my mind – I had given this person free reign and power over me and I, like most people, don’t want to give anyone else power over me, I want to be in control of me.
The only action I could take to make me feel better was Forgiveness! At first I rejected the idea, but after a few months I realized that it was the only action that I had control over and I could free my mind of the negative thinking about it. So I took the steps to forgive that work for me – writing.
I wrote what I felt about this person and their actions that caused me pain, suffering, and disappointment. Then I wrote, “I forgive you (insert name), I do not approve of what you did, yet I release you from my mind and my heart. I forgive you.” I sat quietly for a while, did some heart-focused breathing, breathing in PEACE and breathing out Releasing Anger, then after a few more minutes of breathing I focused on breathing in and out Peace in my Heart and Peace in my Mind.
When I was finished I felt so much better, my shoulders no longer felt I was carrying the weight of the world and my attitude shifted to being even more positively focused.
This process helped me so much! If I had not done it I would still be angry. Honestly, I am still feeling disappointment, but it is not all consuming, it is just an awareness when I think about the situation.
If you are still holding on to painful emotions about someone’s actions that caused you pain or anger that you cannot control, you may want to give Forgiveness a try. It will free you and it doesn’t mean that you are giving them approval of their actions. Frankly, they will never know unless you tell the
Forgiveness equals Freedom!
Margaret Martin ©2019