Transforming Negativity into Joy!

Things quiet down at the beginning of the summer.  So, I have been taking more time for introspection.  Doing some deep inner focusing to see if I can get inspired to create some new classes.  I ask myself, “What is it that I have really learned to do in my lifetime?  What have I conquered and mastered?” One word floats to the top – Emotions!  I know how to transform emotional energies.  I have conquered fear, anxiety, sadness and depression. There are no feelings that I am unwilling to feel, no emotions I can’t transform easily.

Last weekend, I felt irritated, edgy and angry.  It seemed like everything that happened caused me to feel anger.  Once I realized and acknowledged that I was feeling angry, I decided to clear it out.  It took me less than an hour to clear out all the negativity and return to a state of joy.  Oh, Joy! That I can do this so easily now!  I am enormously proud of this skill that I have mastered.  After many years of living in an emotional quagmire, addicted to negativity, it is such an achievement to be able to transform yucky anger so quickly!

How did I do it?  I’d like to share that in hopes it may make a difference for you who are reading this article. The steps to my emotional clearing process are threefold – Accept, Express and Replace.

Accept – The first step in transforming negative emotions is acceptance.  Simply acknowledge the feeling and accept that you are experiencing it.  Don’t try to deny or push away the feeling as that will make it stronger.  Just let yourself have the feeling.  That means feel it in your body.  Sit very still and notice where the emotion lives in your physical body.

Express – Once you can feel it consciously in your body, express it somehow.  Do something to get the emotional energy “in motion.”  Move it out of your body.  You can sing, dance, scream, act it out, paint it, stomp it out.  Really it does not matter how you express it – just express it until the emotional intensity is gone from your body.  In my case, this weekend, I punched and kicked for awhile and then I vocalized it out by vocalizing sharp, aggressive, red sounding “E” vowels.  It only took me about five minutes to get the negative emotions out of my body.  And it was FUN!

Replace – Finally, replace the negative emotion with a more positive emotional quality.  In my case, I just sat down to meditate, visualized love and light and allowed them to come from my soul into my body.  If you have a favorite prayer or meditation practice, you can use it at this third step.  You might ask God to fill you up with the positive qualities you want to experience.  Then, just let it all come into your body.

Once you know these three steps for transforming negative emotion into positive energy, you will feel such a sense of joy that you can go through any feelings and emotions.  You never have to be afraid to get stuck in negativity again.