Are There Monsters Under Your Bed?

Do you have monsters under your bed? Are there emotions and events you are not dealing with? Do you repress certain overwhelming feelings, emotions and events? The energies we deny amplify, leaving us feeling out of control, powerless, blocked and stuck. They become monsters or ghosts in our psyche.

Our frightening experiences need to be processed and digested by our system for us to glean the wisdom that lies at the heart of them. When we ignore or repress a traumatic event, it develops into a generalized and often irrational fear like being afraid of people, animals, heights or traveling to name a few examples.

Emotions like fear, anger, sorrow, hatred and shame are often triggered by our frightening emotional experiences. When we run from or deny those experiences they are trapped within us and form the foundation for negative behaviors and personality structures.

Within each energy, emotion and sensation we experience is the ability to overcome it. As you know, within yin there is yang and within light there is darkness. The same is true for our challenging emotions and experiences. If we are patient and dedicated these experiences will show us many beautiful qualities within ourselves like our ability to love, forgive, accept, be resilient and much more. When we stay with our overwhelming experiences, instead of running away, our indestructible nature and truest essence--boundless love--will be revealed. No emotion or event can ever destroy that.

Yes, the root and truest nature of these powerful energies are simply love. We have become ignorant of this truth. When we run from our experience or identify with it we miss the chance to learn the lessons it has to teach us. If, instead, we turn toward, examine and look with our inner light of awareness on what we perceive as “monsters” and "ghosts," we will discover that they lose their power and disappear over time.

When we identify with our experiences and emotions we often feel powerless, like a leaf in the wind blown around by our internal experiences. We are constantly swayed by our internal tides cyclically happy, sad or angry depending on what our egoic mind tells us. To experience your wholeness, you must release your attachments and discover the most precious internal jewel and liberator, which is awareness. Awareness is the ground of all experiences. Awareness allows everything to express and transform itself effortlessly. You can free yourself from the internal voices and interpretations and know yourself as the luminous, ecstatic ground of awareness.

Is there an event or some emotions that need your attention? In denying them they become "monsters" in your consciousness. I encourage you to "look under your bed," "open your closets," turn on the light of your awareness, reach out for help and let yourself discover your power, strength, courage, fearlessness as well as many more immeasurable qualities. Countless gems and treasures lie within each challenge we face when we choose to "turn on the lights" in the dark places inside and transform our "monsters" into allies.

As Thich Nhat Hanh so eloquently says, “Within the lotus is the mud, for the lotus could not come into being without the mud." The reality of life is interdependence. We forget this truth when we live from our dualistic mind. The dualistic mind's habit is to perceive a self as separate from everything, an inner and an outer, and to process life through that lens. This creates disempowerment. This is the deepest root of our separation from all energies and experiences as well as from our innate healing power.

Within each one of us is the internal power and strength to transform our suffering, painful memories and destructive patterns into gold. You will never know this truth, wisdom and victory unless you summon the courage to take this journey. Embrace the places you fear or have hidden from yourself. Know that you have what you need inside yourself to overcome your emotional blocks as well as the external resources to help you. It may seem daunting, but freedom awaits you.

Be your own hero. Free your internal monsters and ghosts and reclaim the energy you pushed away. Know light in your dark places. Discover the lotus within your internal mud.

Love,

Lisa

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