The Reiki Cafe 

Otoharo!

This is a bit of inconsequential posting! I am at the stage where things that go around the waste have to go "under". So I chose to remove all garments from my wardrobe that hang from the hips. Suddenly it seemed I had converted all skirts by attaching them to a bodice made from old tee shirts. then I began making dresses that hang from the shoulders, no wasteline. this is a wonderful way to live. No pants anymore. Just cotton dresses that hang down to my socks. Like my grandmother wore! time for aprons again. And my sewing machine quit, so all this is hand sewing. All because I have a figure like Buddha.

I have related to you for years that I no longer have emotions just feel joy and love. I live with a kitten now. We are great pals. But--into this heavenly place, emotions kicked in about two weeks ago. I am not free to say who, but a person has managed to "get my goat"!
Xaris has intervened requiring me to talk about this. I finally did. talking helps. One can not release emotions or reaction without saying it out loud. Saying what one is feeling, that is. And one does not have to say this to the person who stimulated the reaction. But say it to someone! Out loud.

finality
I'

Finality, namaste ....

Sounds like with your new wardrobe, you are very comfortable in your own skin, which is a wonderful way to be.

You say that you "no longer have emotions, just feel joy and love" - forgive me, but are they not emotions? Your little kitten, the love that you feel, is that not emotion?

And in order to feel joy, and love, do we not need to experience some sort of opposite, in order to recognize and appreciate them?

The person who "got your goat" makes you sound like the victim ... you are not, you choose to allow them to ruffle your feathers. Your choice is it not?

Talking out loud is brilliant therapy. And I am in no way, truly, trying to negate your experience. Just, I guess, wanting to say, good on you for posting, good on you for recognising emotions you would rather not have, and dealing with them. But we are all human, and having emotions is surely part of that?

With love, light and admiration,

philanty

Dearest Finality,

I learned the lesson (again!) this past week about putting voice to my feelings. I found myself in a very negative situation for several days and had to deal with some very unkind people. By Friday I was exhausted in every way and trembling with emotions, not all of which I was proud to have. I called my mother and told her I was an emotional wreck and needed to talk about what had happened and gain some perspective. Feeling free to voice my feelings in their raw, sometimes not very pretty, state was so healing for me. My mother instinctively knew I needed this release and allowed me that safe space to feel what I felt...and then offered the kind of loving counsel that sometimes only a mother can give. It was a beautiful experience.

I just wanted to share, since it's a theme similar to what you shared. And to also share that my mother and I have had our share of hard times and somehow we've made it through to this wonderful place...such a blessing.

Lesley

Otoharo!

Philanty, there is a difference in our relative definition of words. In our group, feelings come from our heart center, (or a center behind the heart). These feelings are not related to thought in any way. Emotions on the other hand are thougths mascarading as feelings. We spent years learning to distinguish between them. For over a year, I have lived int he state of joy and wonder. Nothing has challenged this in me. Until this last encounter. In fact, now I am still working this out. We know joy without experiencing the opposite, just as a baby knows he likes a taste of ice cream without having to taste something bitter. Why does it seem to you to require that you would not recognise something good unless you have experienced something bad?

finality

Otoharo!

Lesley, how sweet. Glad you and your mother are comrades. So are my daughter and I.

finaltiy

When the clouds part and the sun comes and stays day after day we feel that finally summer has come to stay! Therefor we may be surprised and unprepared when the storm comes.

This is a little how i feel. I feel i have some breakthrough. and this is it i feel good. and then wham! something comes up and hits you on the head.

But when the storm clears our vision is clearer than before. Our times of difficulty are usually our times of greatest growth.

x

Hi finality, namaste,

yes we do seem to have a semantic difference here .... emotions for me, are those intuitive and instinctive responses, as opposed to those which are based on logic or knowledge. So, for me, joy, and love, are emotions. They are not thoughts mascarading as feelings, they are instinctive, intuitive responses. Both, for me, come straight from my heart. Instinctively.

regarding experiencing good and bad, no, I agree a baby knows that it likes the taste of ice cream without tasting something bitter.

you are right, of course, we do not need to experience bad, in order to recognise good. But experience helps me to feel blessed and to feel gratitude for the good things, when I know what the reverse feels like.

Regarding your last encounter, the responsibility for how you felt is surely yours, but the good thing seems to be that you found, for you, the right way of dealing with this, which, for you, was to verbalise your feelings, which is great.

love and light
philanty

finality said on
>...In our group, feelings come from our heart center, (or a center behind the heart). These feelings are not related to thought in any way. Emotions on the other hand are thougths mascarading as feelings.

Finality, this is a fascinating statement. I found it from a heart knowing that there was something I needed to read tonight on the Cafe.

Most of my adult life, I had not been able to feel. I thought anger or depression or obsession was a feeling. I did not start feeling in my heart center, actually feeling, until a few days after Reiki I.

"...feelings come from our heart center....Emotions...are thoughts masquerading as feelings." This is very useful, very useful. It amplifies and validates my experience the past five years since learning Reiki.

I have felt great balance and strength as I've learned to trust the heart feeling and follow where it leads, or go where it pushes me.

We are so used to the role of the head as being the one in control. And, in fact, it is not and never has been in control. When the brain thinks it controls its environment, it can only do so by keeping feelings in shadow. When they are in shadow, unconscious, they drive our behavior all the more.

Our whole language reinforces the assumption of brain-in-control. Maybe that's why my true intuitions don't come with words.

That is the paradox of this Cafe -- all we have here is words, at least on the surface!

Finality, what do you say about the role of the brain with respect to the heart?

Do you think there is a lot of confusion about emotions and feelings? Why is it useful to identify feelings distinct from emotions?

Blessings,
Aronaya

Otoharo!

Aronaya,

Sorry I have been away from the board so long. I had my teeth out and am trying to get used to dentures!

The main reason for being able to know what comes from the head and what comes from true feelings is that ego only has control in the head. Therefore our feelings are clear and clean of ego contamination. Emotions, however are a way that ego can slip into our relationships with others and with everything else in our life, Sneaky!

I wrote a somg about this which I will quote in the creativity board.

finality

Thank you, finality, and welcome back and bless your teeth that served so long and well.

I will meditate on this tonight, listening to and trusting the feelings. It's been a long journey to find them under all the junk piled on top to hide them!

Blessings,
Aronaya