Owning Our Feelings
I was speaking with a client recently and shared a phrase I often use when discussing frustrations in relationships:
Expectation is a recipe for disappointment.
It makes me wonder where the small emotional blows of life actually land. The moments when someone does not behave as we hoped. The words that sting. The plans that fall apart.
Where do feelings go? My wager is that they lodge themselves in the field of energy we call the aura. Everything in nature has an aura, including plants and rocks. For human beings, this mysterious layer resides outside of what we perceive as me or I. Some describe it as a luminous egg-shaped electromagnetic field that surrounds what is tangible. This subtle field expands and contracts depending on the emotional load we are navigating.
Many traditions talk about balancing the chakras, but lately I find myself wondering about something different. An aura acts as a mirror to the self. It is a flexible bubble that reflects our emotional, mental, and physical states.
What if we can polish an aura?
If the aura is a mirror, then every feeling leaves a trace upon its surface. The ability to reflect is not a problem. It gives us an opportunity for greater closeness with self.
Letting down defensive guards, accepting who and how we are, and learning to agree to disagree wipe away clouds of foggy resentment. Safety builds security and trust, clearing off the caked-on splatters of assumption.
We glance into mirrors every day, yet rarely notice the feelings written across our own faces. Seeing the traces they leave is familiar. Sensing them in the unseen field of the aura asks us to close our eyes and turn inward.
An incident happens, triggering a reaction. Our first reaction is a natural part of being human. Deeper pain appears later, when the mind circles back to the moment and responds again, keeping the feeling alive long after the event is over.
Each time the mind gives reruns of a thought, another smudge settles on the reflective surface of the aura. What touched us in that moment may have been joy, disappointment, anger, tenderness, or grief. Human life moves through a wide range of emotional experiences.
Rather than denying these feelings or pushing them aside, we can choose to face them. When emotions are recognized and accepted, the mind has less reason to feed us loops and replays.
Owning our feelings takes strength and courage. Thoughts can be triggering, but we do not need to act on them or defend every emotion that arises. It sounds simple to allow or observe. This takes courage and patience.
A client asked me if a choice he made was the right thing to do as he prepared to leave someone behind. I responded, “It is in the past. You trusted your intuition. Now let it go.”
Discomfort can eat at us and keep us up in the middle of the night. It is a funny thing how the mirror seems more brilliant at 3:00 a.m.
If this happens to me, I get up, practice pranayama, the breathing exercises of yoga, and drift into a deep meditative state, honoring that the mirror does what mirrors do. It reflects.
We can stop fighting what surfaces into our awareness from the auric field.
I believe we can polish an aura without fixating on perfection or elimination. Let’s make an agreement to meet our emotional experiences with honesty. This way, we can let things pass through us without leaving burdensome traces.
Notice the feelings that have swelled into your awareness recently, asking to be acknowledged.
—Ambika Devi
Rebel Anthropologist
Kindred Vibe Collective Originally published in the Kindred Vibe Collective on LinkedIn. Originally published in the Kindred Vibe Collective on LinkedIn. Our emotions are not inconveniences to overcome. They are part of the language of being human.
In Mythic Alchemy, I introduce the Navarasa—the nine emotions woven through our human experience—and offer ways to recognize and harmonize them through mythology, yoga, Ayurveda, meditation, reflection, and practical exercises.
If you are ready to deepen your relationship with your emotional world, I invite you to discover Mythic Alchemy.
