Positive Health Online

On the Precipice of Transformation

by Dave Markowitz

Everyone has their personal edge. As we approach that edge, our mind will do everything in its power to convince you to retreat. At that point there is often an internal battle between will, judgments, stories and beliefs, and love and fear. The more Western-trained self-help gurus will say to push through anyway. FEAR they say, is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. They’ll tell you to feel the fear and do it anyway.

But what if that fear is trying to protect you? Should it then be ignored, repressed, or wished away? What if someone’s fear is a trauma response to particular events from their childhood and what happens if we try to override it with thought alone?

Thought/mind has its place. It’s not bad or wrong. Obviously, we need the mind to help us figure things out, but if we listen to that part predominantly, we’re not honouring our true, raw, emotions. Deep healing involves working with – not against – the repressed emotions.

The mind is really trying to protect you from feeling those repressed emotions that you felt –sometimes, decades ago. It’s basically saying, “I was hurt once, and I’m not going to let that happen again!” It will also aid in keeping what is repressed, repressed.

Sadly, however, repressed emotions create energetic blockages that can manifest in pain and illness, a sense of ‘stuckness’, anxiousness, and so much more. Deep healing recognizes that working through our emotions is the gateway to increased intuition, mental clarity, and overall, much better health.

If you ate spoiled food, the body would react by causing regurgitation. That’s a normal reaction to food toxicity. Now imagine using the mind to push that toxicity back down – what is literally coming up for release. It’s not going to feel very good, and for most is pretty close to impossible anyway. Similarly, our emotions want to rise up and out for healing. But because most of us were taught that our so-called negative emotions are unwanted, we often fight with what our bodies are trying to do for us.

So we can, as mentioned above, try to outwit the internal battle between will, judgments, stories and beliefs, and love and fear, but that’s not going to work. The mind has been trained to repress fear, sadness, and anger and it’s not going to let it all go just because you say you want that to happen. A safe container is required. We need a loving witness to our sadness, fear and grief. We need to welcome ALL parts of us in order to feel whole and complete.

When another person(s) is holding a sacred container for our most vulnerable selves, magic often happens. I’ve worked with thousands of people with various and common diagnoses and insular prognoses that say that person will need to be on medication the rest of their lives. If you need a/o your doctor recommends meds, use ‘em. They too have a purpose. But they typically do not address the underlying cause, which can create a physical dependency on an external source. Not horrible, but certainly not a personally empowering position. And considering the physics of the situation, being stuck on meds can potentially worsen what is already occurring.

During – and even after – working with your repressed emotions for months and sometimes years, you’re going to have challenges. The grooves of belief are often very difficult to dismantle entirely, and part of you will fight the process – even after dramatic improvements! This is when each person’s personal edge is confronted.

The mind prefers what is, and what was, and the rest of you wants to dive into what you absolutely know will continue to deepen your healing process. At that point, your mind can convince you of anything to keep you small, and what appears to be the safer option. But how safe is it to have toxic emotional residue cursing throughout your body, or locked in specific places causing you pain and frustration?

At that point, it takes a true, heart-felt commitment to continue. It takes an honest assessment of where you were, are, and where you’d like to go. Committing to doing whatever it takes –consistently – is a huge part of this process. And as much as that may sound like a mind-generated idea, the opposite is often true. By embracing the mind’s ideas rather than fighting “what is”, we have a chance to heal what’s been manifesting deep within. By honouring that part of ourselves that is only trying to keep us safe, we can begin – or continue – the really deep work.