In late 2020, I managed to release enough painful emotions to completely heal a major pain that had started about halfway through that year. This pain was so severe that I believed I’d never be free from it. Somehow, I managed to be free from it before that year ended. I credit that success to all of the creativity I used in my healing journey.
I spent lots of time imagining a lot of things that would never happen as a result of a particular situation and let go of all the anger, disappointment, sadness, fear, and all other feelings about missing out on those things. Most of this occurred in sensory deprivation floats, which made both the imagining and the emotional releases much easier. I’ve since learned that I can do similar imagining while sitting or lying down and get the same effect. While the floats might make it easier and quicker, they are not necessary for this to work. That’s a big relief since I haven’t floated since late 2021 and don’t see myself doing it again anytime soon.
One of my biggest breakthroughs recently was letting go of some of the desire for retaliation, punishment, or revenge. That has given me so much more peace at work, home, social events, driving, and everywhere else in my life. It helped that I did that close to the time that I listened to a video of Gordon Ramsay yelling at people. While the first fifteen minutes of that video made me feel lots of fear, I felt hardly any during the next fifteen and little to none during the rest of it. Even that first session gave me more peace for the rest of that day.
Also around that time, I worked through two intensely negative interactions I’d had with two different people a week apart last month. They created so much negativity within me that I feared I’d be dealing with the fallout for years. In actuality, I had moved past both of them before January ended. Working through all the emotions in those situations added to the lovely peace that I’ve felt lately.
This week, I started watching this compilation of embarrassing moments from Impractical Jokers to release guilt, shame, embarrassment, and awkwardness. That has made me feel way more comfortable around others, especially when I make a mistake or do something goofy. Even though I first used Impractical Jokers like this back in 2021, I didn’t go nearly as deep with it as I have lately. I plan to keep it up as it’s working so well.
My use of media to bring up and release particular emotions goes back many years. Like many other folks, I’ve long used particular videos, songs, and other works to make the tears flow when I’ve needed a good cry. I did that a lot after my dog Sawyer’s death, particularly when I’d cried enough that I often needed some help to cry even more. At some point, I figured that if that approach works so well for sadness, why couldn’t it also work for anger, embarrassment, and all other kinds of emotions? I’m glad that it’s been so helpful whenever I’ve used it.
Dismantling a big emotional wall by removing one brick at a time has always worked better for me than trying to tear the whole thing down in one fell swoop. One of my goals for this year is to make peace my normal state, and that is off to a great start. It’s amazing to think about how much progress I’ve made in the first few months of 2026. Really, it’s been more like the last few weeks of January and the first few days of February. I feel much more peace each day than I have in many years, and I also notice more patience, willingness to forgive others, and a general sense of easygoingness that I haven’t felt in this way in a long time. And this year has only just begun! I look forward to seeing how much more progress I can make over the next ten months.