One of the mottos of my approach to inner work is “feeling is healing.”

“Feeling” in this case means to consciously, intentionally put our attention on something we are experiencing. An emotion, a sense of dissatisfaction, perhaps something more intense and primal. To be present with them, despite the flurry of thinking and distractions designed to pull our attention away from these often uncomfortable feelings. 

When we give ourselves a moment to stop resisting those feelings like sadness, boredom, pent up frustration, and myriad other feelings within us, it sets the foundation for them to actually process through the system.

Sometimes the feelings simply release, sometimes they reveal insights to us about changes to make in our lives. They may point to deeper layers that will require additional attention – maybe even your life’s work.

Supporting the body with breathing, physical activity, actions like EFT tapping, journaling, or whatever you find that works for you, while consciously staying present to what you are feeling, enhances this process.

As we begin on this journey of inner work and resolution, and even as we are further along the adventure, a practical question often arises:

How long do we proactively stay with, ‘work’ with, be present with an unpleasant feeling that is arising?

Is the ideal approach to be there as long as it takes, power through until everything is released and you feel that you have turned a corner?

Do you give it some space, perhaps do a process, then let it go and allow it to unfold on its own?

Like physical exercise, can you overdo it and cause more harm than good? Can you quit too soon and miss out on the benefits?

As with most things, there are case-by-case differences, as well as our own individual uniqueness. Nonetheless, I will do my best to help you navigate this with some pointers, and ways to help you find your own answers.

Treat each experience uniquely

Our minds love the idea of understanding something before we approach it. It wants to have ‘my technique’ that it can simply plug every experience into. It loves when things follow formulas and follow predictable patterns, because a huge part of its job is to map territory and keep you safe.

There is also a lot of value in having your own techniques that you can apply in a step-by-step manner, so those are perfectly fine. I am talking more about a mindset or spirit of openness in this first point.

Let’s explore what it is to treat each and every experience uniquely.

A lot of times the nature of a subject, or the intensity of a feeling, will make us assume many things about it.

Also, our past experiences working with feelings, especially our bigger breakthroughs, can create very specific expectations and assumptions that we will apply to all future sessions.

The next time you take a moment to sit down and work with something, as best you can, do not assume anything about it. Do not believe the image in your mind about how deep seated the issue lies, how long it will take to process, or how much or little it will require from you.

By the way, this assume-nothing posture is a natural byproduct of being fully present in the here and now. This presence, meeting the moment directly as opposed to from our conceptual ideas from the past and of the future, may be the most universally agreed upon premise you’ll find among spiritual and personal advice.

Notice if you find yourself taking any position before you start turning your attention inward. “I’m gonna tackle all of this,” or “this is going to be a really big one, I’m going to have to take it slow.” As best you can, relax these ideas, take a deep breath, and put your feet into the water of the emotional experience.

Once you step into the water, that is where you will feel what the tide is, where it is going to take you. Just like the ocean, it is not concerned, or affected by, whatever your ideas about it were.

Get the Information From the Source

When you are in the midst of inner work, you can experience thoughts very similar to when exercising. “Do I need to take a break now? should I keep going? Am I doing this right?”

There are two places we often direct these questions. One is to our own mind, which can only respond with conceptual knowledge. This certainly can be valuable, but is not the most direct option. Try it right now. Go ahead and ask your mind “what’s the right amount of time to work / exercise?” “what’s a good diet to follow?” You will notice the computer start searching the database of information.

The second is to ask someone else, or read a blog like this one, and hope to get an answer that can be universally applied.

Instead, try asking the question inward. You may even ask to direct it to the part of you that would have the answer. This might sound abstract, but many people I’ve worked with are amazed at the fact that they often do get an answer quite easily, simply by attempting this without over-thinking the how-to.

If you are doing some practice and part of your body starts to feel discomfort or stiff, bring your awareness there (guided awareness), and ask a question such as “do you need a break?”

Direct that question as though you are actually asking the body part(s), and listen there. Your mind will have answers, but simply keep the attention on the body and be more interested in seeing if you get an ‘answer’ from there.

Approach it in a similar way with an emotional discomfort. “What do you need?” The practice is to focus on the ‘response’ you get from the feeling itself, and not from your conceptual thinking. The next point is one of the main reasons for this.

Part of You Will Always Look for the Out

We all have an innate programming to move towards pleasure and away from pain. This mechanism is deeper than your conscious mind, it is at least a nervous system response, and is present in us before we even develop cognitive thinking.

This is one of the main reasons we cannot reduce things to simple, universal how-to steps that will work for each person.

It is also why many people do not get results.

Of course, as a facilitator or someone giving advice, you have to point out to not over-do things or stress yourself out to where you are doing more harm than good. Physical exercise is an obvious example of where we innately know we can do damage with the wrong form or overexertion.

However, we will latch onto this as an excuse to a) not really do anything at all, maybe the equivalent of light stretching or b) stop way, way too soon.

I’ve never seen it happen that you sit with a feeling for 1 second too long and end up throwing your back out.

What I have seen, numerous times, are people barely even approaching a feeling, and then immediately leaving that experience to begin analyzing it, describing it, or any of the numerous ways to eject from the situation.

If you are being present with yourself in the way I like to work, you are always inviting, you are present and persistent but not overtly forcing things.

It is a skill, a muscle of sorts, to stay with your experience, to stay engaged and probing and getting to the center of things.
Like all skills, it improves with consistent practice, and requires that sweet spot of continuing to expand to your edge. You can’t sprint hard once a month to get in shape.

What to do?

These ideas are easy to think about, and trigger that “ok, so what exactly is the right thing to do?” line of thinking.

This is where you return to the premise of getting the answer for yourself, in each case, by tuning in, assuming nothing about it, and inquiring directly.

I will add one component based on the fact that we are always looking for that escape.

Make a commitment.

Decide that you have dedicated to this, perhaps a certain amount of time for the session or to address a particular situation. If things get uncomfortable, do not force, but do stay present and in the zone of the inner work. If it seems like nothing is happening, don’t use that as an excuse to bail out. Honor the time and simply meditate, connect, journal, EFT tap, anything that is intentional. A beautiful thing begins to happen once your system recognizes that you are playing for keeps, and are not going to eject any time it gets boring or uncomfortable.

Assume Nothing.

Treat each session and experience uniquely.

Get information from the source.

Ask internally what is needed, if you can go deeper or to be still (while maintaining your commitment,) if your body needs to take a walk or drink water, if it’s time to dig in or focus on relaxing and integrating. The main thing is you are practicing the art of listening to the actual responses from your body, nervous system, and not your interpretation of a piece of information or simply following steps.

I hope this is useful to you, and am happy to hear any thoughts, suggestions, experiences, or anything else you have to share by commenting below.