How to Surf Your Emotions (And Not Get Swept Away)
Emotions are just energy in motion. They are the waves that break on the surface of our still depth, creating the movement that colors our experience of life.
These waves can be exhilarating and destructive, beautiful and unpredictable.
We can choose the ride the waves — even the biggest ones can be surfed — or we can lose our footing and get swept away.
Emotions are a part of the beautiful experience of life. They’re not always pleasant, but they provide the opportunity to look at the meaning we attach to things and the stories that we tell ourselves.
Have you ever noticed how the same circumstance can provoke completely different emotions depending on how you look at it?
“I feel lost and afraid and it seems like nothing goes my way no matter how hard I try.”
or
“I know it’s uncomfortable, but this situation is exactly what I need to help me grow into person I have the potential to be to serve others at the highest level possible.”
Use your emotions to show you where there might be a gap in the story you’re currently living versus the story you say want to live.
The way to close the gap is to firstly realize that there’s always stillness beneath the surface. There’s a stillness within you that cannot be disrupted no matter how chaotic the surface might be.
From this place of stillness you can gain a detached perspective on what’s going on at the surface level and what might be the cause of waves you’re experiencing.
Secondly, it may be valuable to grow your awareness enough to experience, as Rumi says, that you are the entire ocean in a drop. This means that to extent you expand your consciousness to encompass the entire universe (ocean), the more effective you will be as a co-creator of your reality.
Lastly, realize that even though emotions are a part of you, they are not the you.
There’s a big difference between “I AM angry” and “I FEEL the experience of what is commonly associated with the label of anger.”
Your experience is just what it is. You get to decide what labels, stories, and meaning you attach that experience. And you get to choose if you surf the waves from your place of stillness or allow them to sweep you away.
Talk soon, Nathan