What are your ideas about emotions?  Are they pesky parts of human beings that just “get out of control;” or are they powerful tools given to allow us authenticity and guidance in our human lives?  Do you feel and pay attention to your emotions; or do you push them away and attempt to hold them at bay?

As a “Recovering Angry Person” and California psychotherapist (since 1972), I have come to the conclusion that emotions are a vital part of human beings, given as a gift to us, enabling us to navigate our lives.  Emotions (e-motion) are energy, energy in motion.  Energy is designed to move, so when we push emotions away or attempt to hide them, that energy turns negative and sours our lives.  Each emotion offers a signal, with each different emotion offering its own “signature” signal that tells us what action to take.  Love, for example, signals us to “come closer.”  Taken together, our emotions comprise a Human User’s Manual, available 24/7, ready to tell us the right actions for us to take in any situation.  If only we will listen!

Most of the time, humans live in fear of emotions, having concern that they will “go out of control” and embarrass us or toss us about, helplessly.  To live a life of authenticity, within the power of your own feminine spirit, you need to know, understand and work with your emotions.  Most especially, you need to discover how to keep them in balance.  To walk in emotional balance, you must be real with your own emotions, which is what leads you to authenticity.

Emotions are now being heralded as the “language of the Universe,” and as such, are more powerful than any of us has previously thought.  Women have the advantage. Our culture encouraged us to allow and feel our emotions.  As part of the huge human/world transition we are currently undergoing, we’re now obliged to get in charge of those emotions--learn to master your emotions, so they no longer run us!

Emotional balance through understanding the Big Picture of how our powerful feminine spirit fits into our human experience is one of the reasons that Life Coach Deki Fox and I began our radio program, Taking My Turn (www.thewinonline.com).  Instead of encouraging ourselves to hold back on our emotions, continue to put all others ahead of ourselves, and protect others from our emotions, we’re encouraging you to listen to your emotions, to feel what’s in your heart, to soar by taking the actions your emotions lead you to take.  We’re not suggesting you run screaming from your current life in order to be “free”(!), but we are offering you tools and assistance for getting “free” in your everyday life, so you can soar.

My friend, speaker, singer and social worker Rosita Perez, said it best:  “Don’t die with your music still inside of you!” 

©  Ilene Dillon, M.S.W., El Sobrante, California, March 2010