How to Digest Stuck Emotion - Lessons from the Elephant Ear Plant
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Let me show you something that’s happening to my elephant ear plant. Check out the dying leaves!!!
When I first saw the leaves getting brown and dying, I got really nervous. I worried there was something wrong with the plant and she wouldn't make it. I've had this elephant ear since last August and I’ve been amazed at how long it’s lasted after being outside all summer and then coming to live inside next to dry radiator heat all winter.
Since receiving this plant, it has lost quite a few leaves. Every single time a leaf bends over gets brown and dies another leaf or baby is growing out of it.
What an amazing lesson!
In order to grow you have to let go of what’s not serving you. What’s not serving you is gonna feel crappy it’s gonna feel like shit. When you're releasing something not serving you, it feels like anger, frustration, sadness, old patterns may emerge, there might be weird random or chronic pain that comes back. You may have strange dreams or images or memories or impulses. It’s really really hard when those things come up not just because it feels bad. But also because there’s another layer of judgment or shame about feeling bad. It may feel like you’re somehow moving backward. It can feel like you're not on the path you thought you were on. You may think, " I thought I was beyond this" and "who do I think I am" and "I've done so much work why is this still happening." It's ingrained in us to judge and criticize what is hard and uncomfortable. That’s how we learned to handle challenges. Our culture shows us that we should somehow always look good and feel good and be good and that’s just not real. That’s not who we are as humans. There is a shadow side, a dark side to all of us. The more you can lean into the shadow when it’s happening and recognize that something is ending, in a regulated and grounded way, it’s really amazing what happens.
When you don't lean into your shitty experiences what happens?
They get stuck in your body home and can cause
Depression ( a literal pushing down of our anger and frustration)
Anxiety
High sensitivity
Migraines
Chronic Pain
Addictive behavior
Digestive Issues
Allergies
The next time you're feeling shitty, angry, annoyed, frustrated, irritated, confused, foggy, or whatever get curious about leaning into them and letting them have a moment to move through. When you do that, you are digesting your emotions rather than letting them get stuck in your body at home and make you feel crazy.
Next time you’re feeling down and it feels like you’re moving backward, just remember there’s something growing underneath you might not see it you might not yet know it’s there. Trust that growth is on the other side of it and lean into those challenges.
One very important caveat. If you have a lot of old stress-energy in your nervous system, leaning into the hard stuff may feel totally overwhelming especially if you’re working with grief or shame or old old emotions. This is where we want to find more regulation and more of a sense of ease and comfort and build that into your system first with guidance and support. This is what I do with clients one on one and in workshops. If you need help with that definitely message me here.
The message for today is to lean into what’s happening even if it’s a little bit.
If you’re feeling resistance, lean into the resistance
If you feel like you need a break, give yourself a little bit of a break
If you’re feeling irritated just let yourself be irritated and express it.
Don’t try to change it or fix it so quickly by thinking about something positive or doing the opposite.
Explore what it would be like to lean in.
