Dear Hearts,
Welcome back to our weekend conversations. I must say, these weekend sessions have become my therapy, and I hope that, for those of you who wandered here via the worldwide web, they have that exact same effect. I confess, I have not yet worked up the courage to use my own voice for our audio narrations on YouTube. But, as I explained to one of my close friends recently, these articles and their accompanying audio, when played back, make me feel as though they are the words of the guardian I never had. They heal me as much as I hope they heal you.
And so, I hope you bear with me until I have the courage to regain my voice. Today’s conversation is a myriad of things, but at its core, it is, as with all things Avastavé, a journey to betterment, a journey back home, a journey to the most you-est version of you.
What is enlightenment? In the words of Lord Buddha, it is the ultimate state of spiritual awakening, and it has many names. But our purpose today isn’t to reference spiritual leaders; it is to walk through the very real human emotions we experience on the path to enlightenment. I believe that path; that little road leading to the warm cottage in the rose garden of your mind’s eye, involves understanding, learning, and ultimately harnessing the tsunami of human emotions we experience as we move through life. Anger, for instance, when left unchecked, can have devastating consequences. Yet it has also motivated many a lost soul back home to the version of themselves they once believed to be gone. Similarly, a love born of trauma cannot be compared to a love born from two healed spirits. But both love and anger, in tandem with every other emotion, are essential to our human experience. I do not believe the purpose of enlightenment is to suppress your emotions. I believe it is a sign of enlightenment to use your emotions in a manner that regulates your nervous system while staying true to the spirit of who you are.
Lately, I have found myself in a reactive space of being, a space I hadn’t occupied for a very long time. But having moved countries and returned to familiar spaces has enabled me to come face to face with certain realities that I believe I have yet to make peace with. Still, I am allowing myself to experience these emotions because I know myself better now. I know that I do not come from a place of malice or ill intent. My words and my energy have been aligned with my actions for so long that, when confronted by people whose actions draw me into spaces that do not operate wholly from a place of authentic truth, I, too, become the reactive version of myself that I was as a child. It is not a good feeling. But it is perhaps a necessary revelation, and an even greater reminder that human emotions are necessary. They are, I believe, the walls that arise many times throughout our lives, and only by accurately processing them are we able to leap into the next chapter.
The aim is not to be a robot. It is not to glaze metal and mercury over our hearts and minds and become less responsive to very real issues
Too many of us have been told for too long to stay silent, that there is an unbeknownst wisdom in remaining quiet. I believe that silence is powerful, but I also believe that all emotions must be harnessed in balance. There is a grace to feeling anger when you’ve been wronged, just as there is a grace to feeling gratitude for the kindness of strangers or loved ones. In my own life, I continue to learn that our emotions, and indeed our entire being, are built in a divine and cosmic manner that allows us to become the best versions of ourselves. It is the unnecessary clutter of the outside world that so often suppresses us from that path.
The aim is not to be a robot. It is not to glaze metal and mercury over our hearts and minds and become less responsive to very real issues.
My goal, dear hearts, both for myself and for you, is to be more intentional and less aggressively reactive, to have more clarity in communication and less noise and fog. I believe that feeling angry, or sad, or unbearably hurt does not mean you are behind in your journey. It means you are experiencing your life and learning from it.
If you live intentionally, every moment becomes a teachable one, and I hope that we always stay open to receiving those lessons. I pray that, as you experience these emotions, you heal yourself. And I pray that, as you near the nirvana of your own existence, you find yourself in profound peace.
love always,
Avastavé by Dmitri Ruwan
Listen to the audio narration of this article here.
