RickyFitts

I've been very aware of my root chakra for maybe two-three weeks now, there appears to be a connection between that energy centre and my heart - actually, everything seems to come back to my heart in the end, the unresolved trauma I have in that area of my body seems to have a knock-on effect on the rest of my energy-system. I'm still experiencing a lot of head pressure, too, which always seems to intensify when I focus on my heart. But I'm getting there though, slowly but surely.

@Judy2 You're welcome

Only if you make it into one, if you tell yourself that the point is to have a silent mind - go into it with that belief and you'll be in for a world of frustration, because you really don't have that much control over your thoughts. I like Adyashanti's simple meditation instruction: 'Allow everything to be as it is'. And if thoughts happen to be arising, that's just what happens to be arising in the moment, and it's not a problem. I think the key thing is the releasing of the underlying unresolved emotion that's driving the mental activity - once that's resolved, the mind tends to become quieter. Though fair warning, the mind may actually become busier for a time, it may get worse before it gets better. But that's perfectly normal, it doesn't mean you're doing something wrong.

Absolutely, yoga can be hugely beneficial in a number of ways - I highly recommend it, I know it helped me so much when I was suffering with chronic anxiety for example As I say, I think what tends to be at the root of negative emotions like irritability is unresolved trauma and emotional upset, and once you resolve those issues (easier said than done, but definitely worth the effort) then the irritability gradually falls away be itself. You do have to do the inner work though, it can't be purely conceptual - 'you can only heal what you can feel,' as Teal Swan says. Right, I can absolutely relate to this! But what you resist, persists, as Jung said - I know that learning the true meaning of self-acceptance has been so important in my own journey, because denial and repression only end up enslaving you. And again, it can't be purely conceptual, there has to be a physical softening into vulnerability and a willingness to allow the arising of uncomfortable or even painful emotions.

This thread's amusing to me because I've been thinking a lot just recently about starting a thread on just this subject (it's doubly funny to me because I also wasn't sure which subforum to put it in, it really doesn't seem to qualify as a serious emotional problem). Because I do sometimes find myself feeling very irritable about things that seem really trivial, and it frustrates me (as an example, and I know this probably sounds really daft, but the sound of liquid being poured into a receptacle really irritates the hell out of me sometimes, I'm not sure why). Anyway, what I've found in my own experience is that there tends to be a lot of upset and even grief underneath feelings of intense anger, and it's that underlying upset that needs to be felt in order to let go of the surface anger, I feel; we humans tend to get caught in that surface negativity, though, so it can be extremely challenging to allow that inner resistance to relax and to allow the arising of the more vulnerable feelings underneath it. Body-centred practices like breathwork and yoga can be tremendously helpful in that respect I think, they can help the body to relax and then gradually release what it's been holding on to. Though it can also be challenging to ride the waves of emotion when they do start to arise.

I was thinking more on the level of feeling than thought - how do you feel when you're alone with yourself, be more attentive to that.

And? I think it's on-topic, I don't think you'd derail the thread.

I would say that if you're still capable of being gripped by fear, then yes, you should continue to meditate, because the fear indicates something unresolved within you. Though I think that when the awakening is abiding (ie it's not coming and going), then all of life is lived in a meditative state.

I think we're exactly like that, to be honest, I think we're all a Pandora's box of unresolved traumas and upsets - certainly that's been the case for me, at least, I had a terribly hard time with anxiety and depression and it was only doing the inner work that helped me to overcome that inner turmoil. You saying definitively that 'we're nothing like that' just sounds awfully narrow-minded to me, to be honest.

I suspect you're just distracted from your anxieties to be honest, though of course I can't know that for sure. The proof of the pudding's in the eating - when you're alone with yourself without any external distractions, what's your experience?

@Preety_India You're welcome

@Preety_India Sorry for the delayed reply, darl, just seen your post now. The thing that really helped for me personally was just to be very present in my body, to notice how the negativity manifests as physical tension and contraction, and to allow that inner resistance to relax. It took a lot of concerted effort, though, because those patterns and accompanying energetic blockages can be very deep-rooted, and there can be a lot of upset, fear, rage, etc., lurking underneath the resistance which can be really challenging to deal with if such feelings do start to arise. I found a formal meditation practice absolutely essential in my own experience (yoga also really helped when I was suffering with chronic anxiety).

The not wanting is also negativity, ironically. It's eminently understandable though - I know I for one can definitely relate, I struggled for a long time to let go of negativity (and boy, was I holding onto a lot of the stuff).

I have an ex who's 28, and to be honest I just can't think of her as a woman because she lacks maturity (not her fault, she had a very difficult upbringing which left her emotionally stunted) - to me, a woman has maturity, and not all females over the age of 18 possess that. Maybe my conception of womanhood isn't accurate, I don't know.

Might be something called the Inner Sound Current, which I heard about a little while back - article on the subject here.

Mm, I've heard it's a very sexy show. You'd think that alone would be enough to make me watch (what with me being a geezer an' all) and yet alas not. Does sound like an excellent show from what you've said, though maybe I'm too much of a delicate flower at the moment to be able to really appreciate it Jesus H. Christ I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the heads-up!

Oh I dunno, she could eviscerate you with logic The Xena, warrior princess of the spiritual community, imo. Buggeration, never seen an episode of GoT but I'm intrigued now, going off that comment. What was it, Rohypnol?

I don't know what you mean by that

@Natasha Love it ?

@VeganAwake Ugh, no offence but you always come across to me as the worst kind of neo-advaitist fundamentalist. No different from any other sort of religious fundamentalist, you just seem to spew dogmatic rhetoric.