Advice from a Therapist
As you may have read, I am sharing poems I wrote the year I quit drinking (2017). These poems were really journal entries, and basically attempts from me to listen to my Soul.
Here is what I wrote on September 25, 2017.
I titled this post '“Advice from a Therapist” because I stand by this advice for if you have a difficult emotional situation you are walking through.
Advice
Whatever you are
going through,
allow it.
- (9.25.17)
The Inner Knowing voice sits behind my heart. In my heart, I find the weather: sadness, heartbreak, worries. Lots of it. I have found that fighting it does not work.
Breathing with it.
Holding the pain and allowing it to be there. These things work.
The trick is not rushing the pain out or through. Just allowing it to be. Saying, Hi, pain. I hear you. I see you. I feel you.
I say this to myself as kindly as I can. I feel it, in all its fullness. I say to myself, May I care about this pain.
We all have feelings. But no one let us know how to process them.
We are relational creatures, so sharing them helps. And when there is not someone to share with?
Writing them out helps.
And sitting with them, feeling them for real, helps.
Feeling is what they need (attention from you). Kind, loving attention. Like a sweet, understanding Mother.
It takes bravery to sit with your feelings.
It takes courage.
Feeling the pain is the alchemy.
Alchemy is the process of turning a normal object into gold. Feeling our emotions turns them from pain into magic.
It won’t happen right away, but it will happen. I promise. The pain needs to be felt to transform.