8/7/2019 How to Release Big and Small Emotions http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/how-to-release-big-and-small-emotions 1/10 Tuesday, February 08, 2011 FOLLOW MEON TWITTER STUMBLEUP! RSS FEED COMMENTS Search this website... GO Home About & Contact Site Map External Resources Books Categories Archives How to Release Big and Small Emotions (Release) 30 BROWSE> HOME/ ANXIETY, HOWTOAWAKEN, KEY ARTICLES, MEDITATION , RELEASE/ HOW TO RELEASEBIG AND SMALL EMOTIONS (RELEASE) This is a beautiful technique that’s as effective as it is simple. That’s because it’s very natural. We knew it as children but have forgotten how to use it. It works right away with emotions, but once you have some practice with it, you can use if just as well for thoughts and beliefs, and for releasing emotional baggage around desires. It helps to understand the structure of emotions. If we were fully functioning organisms, a feeling would simply be a transient message about something going on right now, and we would feel it as a quick ripple. That’s a feeling. An emotion, however, is a pattern, and it is remembered and it accumulates energy, leaving a deeper groove each time it is experienced, and it may or may not be about something happening right now. Emotions can come up as a response to circumstances, but more often, they come up as a response to thoughts. An emotion is an energized thought, and it always starts as sensations in the body. This is obvious with strong emotions like anger or anxiety. Anger starts off with muscular contraction, an increase in adrenaline, temperature, heartbeat and blood pressure, and a hotness in the face. Anxiety may start as sensations in the belly. Even the smallest of emotions starts as a sensation, though we may not be sensitive to the sensations. The sensations start up, and they trigger an associated thought-story. With negative emotions, the associated thought- story is usually in voice of the inner critic. The thoughts and sensations then get into a feedback loop, energizing each other, and the emotion gathers up a storm. You will notice that with negative emotions, the first thing we do is contract. We mentally resist and physically contract our bodies, in anticipation how bad it’s going to feel. You may also notice the paradox of negative emotions. Emotions promise to hold off the very thing they give us. Fear says I am trying to keep you safe. Anxiety says I am trying to give you the security you need. Anger says you are not liking what is happening. Hurt says you will feel bad if you don’t pay attention to me. In Asia, they use this clever trick to catch monkeys. There is a circular shackle or a hole through which the monkey puts her hand to grab a banana on the other side. The hole is just big enough to let in an open hand, but not big enough to let out a fisted hand. The monkey cannot get her hand out if she holds on to the banana. This is exactly what we do with emotions. We grasp them. All we have to do is open our hands to release. Here’s a quick experiment to show how this technique works. Make a fist and squeeze it hard as if you’re holding on to something, and keep squeezing. What does that feel like—a little uncomfortable? Perhaps it feels a little strange, but if you keep squeezing the ’ W EL C O M E! How do we free ourselves from the past, from depression and anxiety, from the unease of being which most of us experience? The joy of being is in the clarity of our own awareness, right here and right now. PLEASEDONATE I am happy to accept donations from people who have been helped by these writings! CONNECT WITH ME! Enter email address: Subscribe RSS Feed Follow me on Twitter Stumble up! BOOKS awake flow zen converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Home About & Contact Site Map External Resources Books Categories Archives
How to Release Big and Small Emotions (Release) 30
BROWSE> HOME/ ANXIETY, HOW TO AWAKEN, KEY ARTICLES, MEDITATION, RELEASE/ HOW TO RELEASEBIG
AND SMALL EMOTIONS (RELEASE)
This is a beautiful technique that’s as
effective as it is simple. That’s because
it’s very natural. We knew it as children
but have forgotten how to use it.
It works right away with emotions, but
once you have some practice with it, you
can use if just as well for thoughts and
beliefs, and for releasing emotional
baggage around desires.
It helps to understand the structure of
emotions. If we were fully functioning organisms, a feeling would simply be a transient
message about something going on right now, and we would feel it as a quick ripple. That’s
a feeling. An emotion, however, is a pattern, and it is remembered and it accumulates
energy, leaving a deeper groove each time it is experienced, and it may or may not be
about something happening right now. Emotions can come up as a response to
circumstances, but more often, they come up as a response to thoughts. An emotion is an
energized thought, and it always starts as sensations in the body. This is obvious withstrong emotions like anger or anxiety. Anger starts off with muscular contraction, an
increase in adrenaline, temperature, heartbeat and blood pressure, and a hotness in the
face. Anxiety may start as sensations in the belly. Even the smallest of emotions starts as a
sensation, though we may not be sensitive to the sensations. The sensations start up, and
they trigger an associated thought-story. With negative emotions, the associated thought-
story is usually in voice of the inner critic. The thoughts and sensations then get into a
feedback loop, energizing each other, and the emotion gathers up a storm.
You will notice that with negative emotions, the first thing we do is contract. We mentally
resist and physically contract our bodies, in anticipation how bad it’s going to feel.
You may also notice the paradox of negative emotions. Emotions promise to hold off the
very thing they give us. Fear says I am trying to keep you safe. Anxiety says I am trying to
give you the security you need. Anger says you are not liking what is happening. Hurt says
you will feel bad if you don’t pay attention to me.
In Asia, they use this clever trick to catch monkeys. There is a circular shackle or a hole
through which the monkey puts her hand to grab a banana on the other side. The hole is
just big enough to let in an open hand, but not big enough to let out a fisted hand. The
monkey cannot get her hand out if she holds on to the banana. This is exactly what we do
with emotions. We grasp them. All we have to do is open our hands to release.
Here’s a quick experiment to show how this technique works. Make a fist and squeeze it
hard as if you’re holding on to something, and keep squeezing. What does that feel like—a
little uncomfortable? Perhaps it feels a little strange, but if you keep squeezing the
Please write in my blog! Just posted two topics on healing~~ Thank you for
this wonderful blog! I believe that releasing emotions is very necessary as well as
powerful! Namaste, Coach Sarah http://www.raincoaching.com/blog
Reply
Trisha says:
April 28, 2009 at 8:28 PM
You’re right…when you let go of grief, love is all that’s left. So this begs the
question…are we letting go of ALL emotion? Or just the uncomfortable ones??
Reply
Kaushik says:
April 28, 2009 at 8:50 PM
My experience is that feelings never go away. Feelings which are body
sensations–messages from the mind-body–intuition if you want to call it that. They
are transient–short-lived ripples in the body. They turn into ‘emotions’ when the
mind takes these feelings and associates them with thought-stories and the past. A
feedback pattern is created, so that the mind-story energizes the sensation and
sensations energize the mind-story. The whole pattern is remembered so it is
stronger with each iteration.
I believe when we let go emotions, we are bringing emotions back to their true
function of feeling-message, so that they don’t leave traces.
Love is not an emotion. It’s simply our natural state. When all fear is gone, there is
just love.
Your experience may be very different. The point is here is that with this technique,it’s been easy and quick to release anxiety and fear. It’s so very simple, that the
mind initially will say this can’t possibly work. But it does!
Reply
prasad says:
May 5, 2009 at 5:35 AM
Hi,
This is very simple even as compared to sedona method. It really works. The beauty of
it is simple and uncomplicated.I think if it is consistently applied to deeper emptions ,
this give a effective release.
Prasad
Reply
Kaushik says:
May 5, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Thanks, Prasad. Yes, it’s simpler than the Sedona method, and this takes
about five seconds to do. For me, it was the end of anxiety forever! Have you tried
it?
Reply
Lac Erta says:
May 21, 2009 at 3:08 PM
But how do you deal with the life situation the thought of which originally had
given you the anxiety. Now, when the anxiety’s gone, the life’s situation is still remaining
I understand. I don’t have an answer that satisfies intellectually. While awakening, I
have gone through emotional turmoil and anxiety, and when I discovered how to
release these, instantly, what was left was apathy and detachment. I think old
drivers and motivation fall away, but natural intention has not yet surfaced. It does,
and then action comes about very naturally.
Reply
Brando McGregor says:
February 25, 2010 at 11:47 AM
Wow thank you for this. I have been dealing with anxiety on and off for most
of my life. During the times when I am anxiety free I am completely in sync and
functioning. When I am anxious though I become hyper aware of my body and begin to
fill my head with very pessimistic thoughts. I become a prisoner of my body and my
feelings. And I become annoyed by existence itself. A feeling like I just want to stay in
bed and stop.
I came up with something similar to the sedona method…embracing the feeling and
then moving on. I got this from various websites but this website really puts everything
into wonderful perspective.
I have been meditating a lot and have been realizing that I really need to love myself.
My anxiety is trying to protect me from myself but it is actually imprisoning me.
What I would like to know….this is a habit I have…when I am feeling wonderful I have a
habit of saying to myself…”wait a minute…how can i be feeling this good when just a
few days ago i was feeling like hell? how did my anxiety go away so fast. There’s no
way i can be cured. Last time it took this many days to overcome. Theres no way…”
and so I start to check to see if its there. And if its not there…i tend to focus and focus
…like picking at a scab or scar…until I feel it again. THen i go through the entire cycle
of trying to conquer it again.
I am trying to learn how, once i have conquered my anxiety, how to keep myself from
“second guessing” myself and rechecking and rehashing the same anxiety. How do i
stop this cycle of anxiety, curing the anxiety, checking to see if its still there, recreating
it and then fighting it all over again? It’s so exhausting.
I am meditating and learning about the flow of love. Loving myself. But i want to learn
how to….keep my mind from revisiting old wounds and always constantly doubting my
well being.
Reply
Kaushik says:
February 25, 2010 at 1:49 PM
Hi Brando,
Yes, anxiety is debilitating. When I had anxiety, I would usually experience it in the
mornings intensely for an hour or so, and then at a little less intensely at various
periods in the day.
This method, and the Sedona Method and other release techniques work in the
same way: you completely allow what you are feeling and you let it go. We are not
able to see that we can let these emotions go easily and completely because we
are too busy resisting them.
The habit of saying “wait a minute…how is the even possible that I can let go of
anxiety…”–this is a common feeling. The intellectual mind and the ego want to
understand. I think it may be that it is hard for us to accept that anxiety and other
stored emotions don’t have any reality except the one we give them. How is it that
something that has caused me so much misery never actually existed?
When you feel that way, allow it. What you may be feeling with it, is some fear thatthis may come back, and in that case, completely allow the fear and let it go.
Yes, sometimes it is exhausting. Awakening is like that–it ebbs and flows, and
sometimes the ebbs seem like real downers. As you have said: Love yourself, allow,
be patient, continue to be aware (meditate), continue to release.
Kaushick I thank you so much I am definitely coming to this website often.
Everything I have gone through I have gone through before. But sometimes rather than
remember that it all goes away i focus on the struggle. and feel like i cannot control mymind. I have been modifying my habit to check and looking at it as something trying to
protect me. I thank it and then tell it I no longer need it. I am fine with my spirit
protecting me. I do not need the ego to protect me.
Reply
Kaushik says:
February 25, 2010 at 10:07 PM
Brando, that’s a wonderful way to handle it. Thanks for sharing the tip–it
can help others.
love and peace,
k
Reply
Iana says:
April 6, 2010 at 9:13 AM
Hi Kaushik,
Wonderful website, I have been using your techniques, and it has helped a lot.
I am worried about one thing, I still don’t know what I want, mostly professionally. I would
like to work with passion, but I think I have been doing what I had to do for so long that I
can’t hear myself anymore.
Maybe you could do this your next article
Reply
Kaushik says:
April 6, 2010 at 11:39 AM
Thank you, Iana. It is always nice to get feedback on the techniques.
It’s interesting you ask about passion. We want passion, purpose, positive thinking
and all their cousins for the same reason. With purpose, life seems more fun, closer
to Truth, more energetic, more purposeful, and making decisions is easier and of
course we get a lot of validation.
The trouble is that most of our thoughts are in service to the ego, which is the
thoughts and feelings we take ourselves to be. Passion, positive thinking, and evenspiritual advancement are stories of the ego–stories driven by desires and fear and
conditioning. So we strive and chase passion and positive thinking, and we need
our stories to go in certain ways.
In my experience, as I release, and develop awareness, there is an inner peace and
acceptance, in which passion is sometimes invited.
You’re right, I will write more about this in an article.
I hope you are doing well!
love and peace,
k
Reply
Vera says:
May 3, 2010 at 12:10 PM
This article is wonderful. I have found that I have developed intense anxiety,
living in my own thoughts and self-judgment, as i grow up. I am beginning to try
“awakening” techniques that bring me back to the simple enjoyments of adolescence
and childhood, when you didn’t question everything, you just let it flow, you let love in
without being afraid of it. It’s very hard… But seem to slowly be working! Thank you.
I just had a question about this technique though. It works well when anxiety is only
related to YOURSELF. What about when the anxiety you experience is a product of
pain from SOMEONE ELSE, a relationship past that has not been settled in real life, so
how can it be settled within yourself? I am able to release my PERSONAL feeling of
pain, but then there is still something unresolved attached to this other person that
begins the anxiety cycle all over again. so once you rid of the feeling, how to deal with
the real life problem causing it.
xo:)
Reply
Kaushik says:
May 3, 2010 at 12:56 PM
Hi Vera,
Thanks for the wonderful comment, and you ask a very important question.
Relationships seem to be the ego’s favorite playground and many of us find
resistance there. In the type of scenario you describe, there can be unresolved
pain which can last quite some time. There is longing, a need to be heard, a wish toforget, compulsive thinking, obsessive stories running in the head, and so on.
See it as an opportunity. As the Dalai Lama says, when you don’t get what you
want, it’s sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
I have written here about how to deal with the pain of ended relationships.
The Sedona method can be helpful. It asks to see that much of our conditioned
suffering comes from the need for approval, the need for security, the need for
control, and the need to awaken.
Other resources I can suggest: The Sedona Method, EFT, Eckhart Tolle,
Any amount of pain is simply resistance. Anxiety is anxiety whether it is about “me”
or someone else–it is all body-sensations connected to thought-stories. We canlearn to let go, and releasing gets easier and easier and easier …
love and peace,
k
Reply
nichola says:
August 30, 2010 at 6:26 AM
i dont know if this will sound a little silly but i will try and express as well as
possible. I am aware that i emotion is there…usually is the form of anxiety, unease, etc
and with this tends to be obsessive thoughts that bring on anxiety etc….and so on acertain level practicing awareness and meditation i have learnt that when my thoughts
are not as active/ thinking of certain situations i am not ‘feeling; the
emotion….however..at the same time, i am still somewhat aware and this brings double
anxiety, that all i have to do is have this or that thought and the emotion/feelings will
return and i will once again be there again….so for me its like they are always there,
even when they are not (hope this is making sense).
Now when you say feel/ accept the emotion i feel scared…thinking, well i dont want to
feel it again, i want it to go….and i=how do i JUST feel it without all my painful thoughts
attaching to it? can i feel the emotion without the thoughts? if so how?
Thank you and i hope i am clear enough for you to offer some help x
I do understand. For years, I had on and off episodes of depression and anxiety.
During the times that I felt ‘normal’ there was always an underlying anxiety that this
will not last. The fear is that at any time, because of some life event or interruption
in schedule or perhaps no reason at all, the whole thing will collapse. And of course
this is re-enforced, because it seems that the fear does come true.
If you notice in yourself, what you are doing is suppressing thoughts and emotions
you have about your anxiety. You are suppressing the anxiety about having anxiety
again. This is normal and common.
Accept that the underlying fear exists. It is no different from higher-level anxiety you
have. You can work on releasing this anxiety in the same way.
It’s helpful to remember that anxiety–any emotion in fact–is an association between
thought and body-sensations. When the thought is very subtle, we feel this as an
emotion. When the body-sensations are very subtle, we feel this as emotional
thoughts. So the anxiety you about having anxiety is also an association of some
thoughts and some body-sensations. Nothing more. You can be present to it, watch
it, and ask yourself to let it go.
I hope this helps.
Thanks for bringing up a very important point.
light and peace,
k
Reply
Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying about this post...
Health Fitness How To Blog » Health Articles From Other Websites says:
July 1, 2009 at 5:16 PM
[...] Chokshi presents How to Release Big and Small Emotions (Release) posted at
Beyond Karma, saying, “How to release anxiety instantly and [...]
Reply
Personal Development and Self Help 19July | MyBlogPartner says:
July 19, 2009 at 3:17 AM
[...] Chokshi presents How to Release Big and Small Emotions (Release) posted at
Beyond Karma, saying, “How to release anxiety and negative emotions [...]
Reply
Carnival of Healing #186 | Beyond Within says:
September 29, 2009 at 4:49 AM
[...] Chokshi presents How to Release Big and Small Emotions (Release) posted atBeyond Karma. Definitely sounds like a technique I’ll be experimenting [...]