~I invite you to listen to the audio version shared above, where a guided meditation is provided that follows what is shared below in the text.

Those painful emotions that keep popping up. And each time they do, we push them away because we don’t want to feel them. It makes sense that we would avoid what we think will hurt us. But there is a funny, (and wonderful) truth about what we push away that keeps wanting us to fully look at it, examine and understand it: It’s happening to help us grow and step through it and beyond it so that we never have to deal with it again.

My fridge had been making noises for some time. A fairly new appliance, I kept telling myself this noise wasn’t that bad. I can live with it. In other words, I kept avoiding it. As the end of my warranty period neared, I finally prioritized scheduling an appointment to see if it could be fixed. Assuming the process would be arduous, lengthy, and a pain, what I actually experienced was a clear, user-friendly form to fill out, and upon doing so, within 12 hours an actual person got in touch to schedule an appointment. Why had I not done this sooner? The fridge is silent as a mouse now, no extra money out of my pocket, and it didn’t take much effort on my part except for choosing to look directly at the issue and try to resolve it instead of continuing to avoid it and tolerate the noise.

Our unwanted emotions are doing the same thing as the hum from my fridge – they are trying to bring our attention to something that if only we would give it our attention, it would help us heal, to grow and to evolve beyond where we feel stuck or have resigned to remain. As well, when excitable emotions present themselves, when we greet them with the tool of awareness, we are more clearly seeing what exactly enlivens us, so we don’t misinterpret what has ignited our curiosity.

Meditation makes viewing our unwanted thoughts and emotions something we are more comfortable doing. And when we do so, we see them more clearly without the scary thoughts we attached to them in the past. It’s as if meditation gives us a magnifying glass to see the truth of what we are feeling and thinking. Simply to observe. Our ability to witness ourselves being able to do this strengthens our confidence that we can experience unwanted, temporarily unsettling ideas or emotions, and they don’t have to derail us or thwart our progress. Because we are able to see them clearly and not attach stories, we take away their power, understand where they may have originated, and let go of them rather than avoiding them.

This magnifying glass not only helps us navigate unwanted thoughts and feelings, but more wonderfully, helps us clarify what we like, what genuinely piques our curiosity, and what brings us to life. Through meditation, our awareness is strengthened and this helps seeing truthfully all that we experience so that we can then begin to live in accordance to what lifts us, so that we can make decisions that feed our curiosity, and heal that which needs our gentleness rather than our avoidance.

Let’s begin . . .

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~Learn more about TSLL’s Contentment Masterclass: Discover the benefits of Meditation, which is included in the detailed syllabus shared here, watch the trailer, and read student reviews.

~Comments will be turned off for Meditation posts as you cultivate a practice guided by what you need and your journey to cultivating inner peace and aligning with your true self.