People Don't Behave In Angry

I Speak A Lot About What I Call "the Trance Of Unworthiness" Which Is Really Epidemic In Our Culture, This Sense Of "i'm Not Enough," Or "something's Wrong With Me." Most Of Us Have Some Level Of It Because Our Culture Has All These Standards (handed Down Through Our Families) Of What It Means To Be Okay.

I Recently Read In The Book My Stroke Of Insight By Brain Scientist Jill Bolte Taylor That The Natural Life Span Of An Emotion—the Average Time It Takes For It To Move Through The Nervous System And Body—is Only A Minute And A Half. After That We Need Thoughts To Keep The Emotion Rolling. So If We Wonder Why We Lock Into Painful Emotional States Like Anxiety, Depression, Or Rage, We Need Look No Further Than Our Own Endless Stream Of Inner Dialogue.

But This Revolutionary Act Of Treating Ourselves Tenderly Can Begin To Undo The Aversive Messages Of A Lifetime.

If Our Hearts Are Ready For Anything, We Can Open To Our Inevitable Losses, And To The Depths Of Our Sorrow. We Can Grieve Our Lost Loves, Our Lost Youth, Our Lost Health, Our Lost Capacities. This Is Part Of Our Humanness, Part Of The Expression Of Our Love For Life.

No Matter What Feeling Comes Up - Numbness, Irritability, Shame - If I Let It Arise And Play Itself Through, I Naturally Open Into Wakefulness And Care.