As I continue my self-improvement journey, I’m constantly learning more about the importance of making the unconscious conscious. By this I mean allowing unwanted thoughts, feelings, and emotions to rise to the surface rather than keeping them suppressed or repressed in my subconscious. This has been a difficult lesson for me to learn. After all, I mostly strive to avoid pain and discomfort where I can and addressing negativity within myself can be quite painful. As painful as it can be to work through negativity, however, allowing it to fester in my subconscious is even worse. I’d compare it to undergoing surgery to remove a tumor; though the surgery and recovery process are painful, they’re less painful than leaving the tumor in place to grow and cause all kinds of problems.
The more sensations that I suppress and repress, the more explosively everything comes out when the pressure becomes too great. Having regular releases gives me opportunities to work through the stuff in my shadow and keeps negativity from building up excessively inside me. Whenever I’m on point with letting go of new pain as well as old pain, I feel incredibly light and at peace. My goal is to make this part of my daily routine so I can continually heal from whatever I experience and prevent it from dragging me down.
This isn’t limited to individuals. It’s important for families, communities, societies, and so on to address underlying issues instead of allowing them to continue wreaking havoc below the surface. As noted above, this can be difficult, messy, and painful, but it’s necessary so that we can all heal and move forward. The longer this gets put off, the harder it will be to do, and the more pain, distrust, violence, and feelings of separation there will be in the meantime. We can change this if we decide it’s worth doing, so let’s do it. Let’s all read Letting Go and take a page from Daryl Davis as we work on healing ourselves, our loved ones, and the rest of our fellow humans.