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Hi you are receiving this message because you signed up for the Emotional Healing Quick Start Guide. If you'd like to unsubscribe from future mailings, simply click on the link at the bottom of the page. Why Is Emotional Healing So Hard? Part 2 For me, the best part about growing up in Northeast Mississippi was the great outdoors. The rural setting offered ample opportunity to get back to nature, to get in touch with the earth. I grabbed those opportunities every chance I could. I practically lived in the woods - always exploring a little deeper, a little further into new territory. Oh, how I longed to be an American Indian! Too bad wishing couldn't make it so... In high school, my best friend ended up being a guy who *was* part Indian. Or so he said. I couldn't quite make it out by looking at him. (But I was still envious.) Either way, he knew quite a bit about living off the land. Since we both were named Mark, we called each other by our middle names. He was Otis and I was Ivar. On one of our many memorable adventures, he took me to the Old Natchez Trace. In case you're not familiar with it, the Natchez Trace is a scenic highway that runs from Natchez, Mississippi up to Nashville, Tennessee. A nice drive, if you can put up with the 50 mile per hour speed limit. Besides that nice new highway, every now and then you could find little snippets of the Old Natchez Trace. And that's what my good friend Otis wanted to show me. I wasn't too impressed at the time. It appeared to be nothing more than a gully that extended for about 100 yards, located out in the middle of nowhere. I really didn't pay much attention as Otis enthusiastically waxed on about the many activities that must have occurred in the exact spot we were at. To him, it was a living, breathing, part of history. He obviously saw more than I did in that old abandoned ditch. He aroused my interest, however, when he started talking about how the road had worn down over the years, so that now it was several feet deeper than the surrounding ground. That must've taken a LOT of traffic. (I guess I was thinking maybe they'd dug it out with shovels, which, when you think about it, would've been an incredibly stupid undertaking!) Instead, it was thousands of years of animals and Indians walking back and forth. (And starting in the late 1700's, frontiersmen from Kentucky and Ohio and thereabouts walking back home after floating down the Mississippi River to sell their goods in New Orleans.) Thousands of years of walking the ridges - the high ground - to avoid the swamps and creeks as much as possible. Taking the high way. (Which explains the origin of the word highway that we use today.) When it comes to emotions, you and I took the high road also. We all started out in virgin ground, with a certain innocence, emotional and otherwise. It didn't take long, though, before the world started coming down on us in one way or another. Whether through so-called discipline from well-meaning parents, or through nursery school playmates, we soon learned the hard facts of life. We developed coping mechanisms, usually beginning with judgments and self-pity. We found something that worked, and we stuck with it. Pity and judgments both put you to sleep; they're anesthetics. They're handy and easy to use. For a child dealing with the big bad world, they're about the only things available. Problem is, they become habits. They start wearing down ruts. They become like the Old Natchez Trace. Then when you start adding the anger, the fear, the righteousness, the depression and all the rest - the rut grows deeper and deeper. By the time you realize it's your emotions, and not the world, that's the *real* source of your problems, often it's almost too late. We become stuck in our emotional ruts. To get from point A to point B, we have to travel that well-worn high way. Or so it seems. How do I cope with the world? I get angry. I impose negative judgments on myself and others. I feel sorry for myself. I get scared. Just like I did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. Just like I did last week and last year and last decade. All the while, that rut digs deeper and deeper. When I first tried to climb out of my rut, I found the walls were too loose, too crumbly. I couldn't get a grip. I couldn't find a foothold. It seemed hopeless, so I retreated. I gave up. Learned helplessness, they call it. "It's not so bad down here. Besides, I'm getting a little tired. I think I'll take a nap," as I cuddle up with my self pity. It's so frustrating and exhausting trying to climb those walls. So what's the answer? First ask yourself - am I in an emotional rut? Am I stuck with one or more emotions that trouble me on a regular basis? It might not seem like a rut. It may seem like a forest fire of rage or anger. Or a dark cave of fear, or the mushy pit of pity. Or the degutting pain of shame. It may seem overwhelming, but it's still just a rut. An emotional rut that also exists physically as a series of strong neurological pathways, made stronger and deeper by decades of repetition. To get out, the first step involves recognition: "Yes, I see what's happening to me. I recognize. I understand." After you clearly recognize what is going on in your life emotionally, you have several different options. For example, you could ask for more love and more healing. Step back from any current struggles you may be having, and allow yourself to receive help. How? Start by simply asking for it! "I allow more healing." "I allow more love." "I am letting in greater healing." "I am letting in more love." "I am asking for more healing." Or however you choose to phrase it. Simply by honestly and sincerely asking for more love and more healing, (and being willing to receive it!) you're creating the space for it to appear. It's like digging a hole in saturated ground. If you create the space, the water will always come to fill the hole. In fact, you can't keep it out. Same here. If you can ask (without pity!) for more love and more healing, it will surely appear. The love and the healing can float you up to the surface. They can change your life. Imagine yourself in your rut. Then imagine the love and healing flowing down from above and lifting you out. This isn't the complete answer, but it's a start. You still need to feel the impact of your emotional rut, along with various other things, but asking for more love and more healing offers a great starting point. *** For more information on working with your emotions, order your copy of the e-book, "How To Create Your Own Reality". It explains how and why you make things the way they are right now, and then provides useful, practical, and specific techniques to change things, to make life the way you always wanted it to be. click on the link below - http://www.join-the-fun.com/bookletter.html all the best, Mark brought to you by Mark Ivar Myhre The Emotional Healing Wizard fiercely slaying your emotional dragons!