The last few years have been interesting. Whether this is due to the 2012 effect, the alignment of planets, the effect of media and electronics or none of it, many people observe that life has gotten faster, harder and emotions seem more out of control. The individual as well as collective mind seems to be undergoing an upheaval.

What’s going on?
From my perspective, it looks like a mass cleansing. It appears as if years of bottled up and suppressed emotions are being brought to the surface. While this is a nice thing in the long term, in the short term it can create a lot of disturbance.

What can we do?
As a soul, we take physical form to experiment and experience. But when we forget this fact, the incidents in life go from being an ‘interesting experience’ to a burden and a curse. As long as we resist the present moment, no matter how illogical and fearsome it may be, we create more hindrance than what is already present.

We start by telling ourselves that it is natural to go through whatever we are going through. Just like the more one struggles in water, the faster one drowns, the more one resists in life, the faster they reach a nervous breakdown.

But what if I can’t?
Most of us know about the acceptance already, don’t we? So what do we do when we’re stuck with a head overflowing with emotions?

Start with this:

If the emotions are particularly intense, then breathe quickly and forcefully for about 10 seconds, before settling into a gentle but deep breathing for 3 minutes.

Feel the emotions
When the emotions are at a manageable level, allow them to surface, and feel whatever else comes up. It helps to spend some time sitting in front of a blank wall as it allows the projections to become easier.

It is a natural response for many of us to try avoiding what we are feeling, by watching TV, surfing the internet or using some other form of activity. While this might help temporarily, it only suppresses the emotions for some time, before they come up and bother you again. If we can sit and allow ourselves to surrender to these feelings, then they will eventually pass, leaving our system clean.

Note that feeling and expressing aren’t the same thing. When you are truly immersed in feeling, you don’t have any energy left to express. It is only when you are trying to avoid the feeling, that the energy you are trying to suppress comes out as an explosive emotional outburst.

Accept it
Feelings come and go. But our conditioning causes us to judge our feelings, due to which we try suppressing them. For instance, if a mother is very angry with her child, she feels like a bad mother and tries to suppress it. This causes her frustration and even more self-directed anger, which eventually comes out on the child. Often this just becomes a pattern, as the anger she takes out on the child causes more guilt and anger.

Acceptance creates a huge space for problem solving. When in resistance, we are stuck with a thought that the only way to be happy is to make this problem go away. Acceptance opens things up and allows us to say ‘Ok, so this is where I am now. How do I make the best of this situation?’ So instead of agonizing over what you cannot do, you are focused on what you can.