Reconnect To Emotions

DETACHMENT 2.0

This time 10 years ago, I'd spent 303 days of continuous self-investigations and writing about my findings, to learn about self and become more connected to others. This post I wrote 1st November 2015 on DETACHMENT, shows how far I had come along my path learning about why we become depressed.

The word 'depression' is a perfect word for explaining the process of pushing down our emotional feelings – a lowering and compression of our feelings, which are importantly used for life guidance, – which helps us to know what has value, what is important to address immediately and what steers us on the right path.

When we don't take responsibility for our feelings and if we allow others to take over our decision making processes, that in-turn, suppresses emotions, we become impacted with blocked emotions that build up to cause disease of the mind and impaired with symptoms which will develop in the body expressed as 'heaviness', lack of desire and no motivation.

The Myth of Mental Illness
This controversial topic and the book by Thomas Szasz, reveals that we as the governors of our body, mind and as decision makers for best steering our goals, we can heal the symptoms of anxiety, reverse illness caused by sustained stress and we can stop the voices and thoughts that lead to what is perceived as 'mental illness'.

Our need to be right and our need to know are two separate things and it is our lack of self-belief, lack of knowledge about our powers (and issues around courage), that means we give away our powers to others who then confirm what we want to hear – that there is something wrong and that they can help fix us.

A whole industry has developed from the idea that psychotherapy can badge us with identifiable diseases, receive payments to heal malaise of the mind and all in the deception, that we are in charge of our own minds and our own thoughts – we just forgot how to manage them both!

Connection to the Inner Child
The body is like a young child in that it takes instructions to move from the impulses in the brain, then it takes feedback from the environment to avoid pain and seek pleasure. As we develop modes of communication. 'Hungry' 'Hot' 'Tired' and 'Mumma' are the communications we use to get what we need. Once we pass the phase of identifying objects and we've learned to avoid pain, there comes a time of social conditioning that imprints within us the need to 'fit in'. These first levels of programming sit deepest in the mind and any traumas experienced at this time will be retained in a vault we cannot access on our own. This is where deepest shamanic work goes to find these locked memories.

With the development of family relationships, we pass new tests with other children under the guidance of kindergarden teachers and eventually we enter primary school where much of our conditioning takes place to function within society. It is between the ages of 5 and 7 that the imprints of guilt, shame, being told we're bad or not any good at something, that really start to mould our future selves.

To navigate back to our 5 year old selves, we can meet the inner child and converse with ourselves using shamanic journey work. it is through the power of deep meditation with a guide's help that we can address any hurt that occurred at these impressionable ages.

A Birds' Eye Perspective

Understanding the child's journey we can watch a very informative series called 'The secret lives of 4,5 and 6 year olds'. In this TV show we see how social interactions form our personality and the how need to deceive/lie are characteristics favoured as methods for self preservation methods – and of course to gain advantages. It is at this part of our lives when something Wilhelm Reich termed 'Armouring' is built up. 

Going back to meet our child self, we can find out a lot more about our adult selves and through a program of release, acceptance and forgiveness, gain back that joy and innocence we've perhaps lost in the process of managing the real world.

Emotional Maturity

As we progress through life, there are mile stones we cross and tests we need to pass. These times and years work in 7's. 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and 49 being the most powerful times. By 42, if the person has not developed the maturity to handle emotional traumas (some of which may be significant), the repression and depression will require the help of others. 

The pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, build up our preferences, define our lifestyle habits and inevitably, will determine either a harmonious and well-balanced person or one who is over-ruled by 'archetypes' – some of which will be shouting and knocking us down. We need to find our bliss and this is achieved through meditation, observation and deconstruction of the trapped emotions through 'forgiveness', surrender and release. The emotions are not us and neither are the voices – merely programs trapped and not dealt with on our path through live. 

Return to the first moments of divine child-like innocence at the centre of our universe– the essence of self. Joseph Campbell's work demonstrates 'The Hero's Path' through Myth.