You Can’t Go Where You’re Going Until You Feel What You’re Feeling

You’ll hate this post unless you’re already enjoying your work or on the verge of that enjoyment. Why? Because I’m going to ask you to fully feel what you are feeling, and for most people, that can be very uncomfortable. But being willing to fully feel everything is the one process that separates the whiners from the winners in the game of work life freedom.

If you have the gumption to accept the following tips, you can do more to advance the enjoyment of your true calling than by using any other process.

Why? Because the willingness to feel is the thing most missing, not only for delightful work, but for robust living in your entire life. I’ll share some ways to begin feeling fully in Part Two of this post. For now, I want to make a case for what you’ll gain by feeling fully. As you read this, just be open to the possibility that everything in your life can come more easily by feeling fully.

1. Feel fully for greater clarity. When we aren’t feeling, we are living in the swampy murkiness of avoidance, confusion, denial, distraction or numbness. When we feel, we can see clearly what we want and engage ourselves in joyfully creating it. Some avoid feeling by hiding behind tension-relieving substances like food, alcohol and drugs. It’s worth realizing that these artificial inspirations never quite approximate the heights that could be realized by the natural high of creating the life you want.
2. Feel fully for greater energy. It takes a lot of work to hide from our own truth. When we aren’t feeling fully and living in the present moment, we are trying to time travel to the past or the future. That fruitless effort just tuckers us out. Do you awaken eager to engage your daily work? Does it make you feel like singing? When we eagerly anticipate joyful experiences, we add energy to our reserves. But when we dread our work, we often deplete our energy before we even arrive at our workplace.
3. Feel fully for less fear. Feelings naturally arise in our bodies. Essentially they are vibrations that alert us to focus points of awareness. Some gut feelings are legitimate warnings for us to avoid harm; others are unproductive triggers to prior events. Often our default position is to engage the same flight or fight response that our early ancestors did. We still have this system alive within us, seldom are we truly threatened enough to need it. With the noble, if unnecessary, desire to protect us, it will create fear when none exists.For example, imagine receiving mail with a law firm’s return address on the envelope. Often our first reaction is fear. Oh no! Now what have I done?! Most vibrations do not become negative emotions like apprehension, anger, sadness or disappointment until we attach a thought to them. We don’t feel fearful until we label something as potentially bad. So, in fact, we often create the fear that we avoid feeling! Isn’t that something? If we didn’t create it, it wouldn’t even exist. We always have the choice of feeling only the vibration as it passes through our body.
4. Feel fully for greater opportunities. Imagine an ever-flowing circle of wonderful possibilities that are just outside of your vision. Then, suddenly, simply by feeling, you can see, and sieze, them! It’s a lovely development that I want you to experience. When our minds are less cluttered with fearful possibilities, our vision just naturally improves. And then we can see the opportunities that where there all along. Instead of frustration, a natural state of gratitude appears to sharpen our intentions.
5. Feel fully for greater readiness. Readiness is a curious and illusive animal. In contrast, it is our self-declaration of not yet being ready that stops us the most. When someone says they aren’t ready, they probably don’t feel inclined, willing and available for action. Instead, they feel weighed down with things they think they must handle first. From that perspective, it seems as though the right time to act never comes. Perhaps it would if you could only give yourself the permission to feel all of your feelings, both high and low. Try it; you’ll be amazed at how freeing it is.

Feeling fully could be the practice you’re missing the most. Emancipate yourself by feeling all the time and you’ll enjoy such wonderful benefits that you’ll never return to the life you once led.