Releasing Emotions

Posted on August 11, 2008
Filed Under Chief Blogging Officer

Most of us have heard of The Secret and the Law of Attraction, which basically states that like attracts like, so it is best to think positive thoughts and not dwell on the possibility of negative outcomes. There has been a lot written on the subject, and a lot of money made packaging and selling interpretations of the Law of Attraction by many different people in many different ways.

In matters such as these, it is best not to throw the baby out with the bath water. My son told me about a friend who was avoiding a gathering that one of his roommates was having at their house because it was going to consist of a group of Law of Attraction zealots. Among the expected attendees was a “life coach” who proudly states on his website that he feels that it is calling to transcend work and spend his time telling others how they should live their lives (for a very hefty fee).

We all know what P.T. Barnum had to say about such matters, but I think that there is definitely something to manifesting our own reality, and one thing that is not considered often enough is the need to release emotions.

I recently learned about a man named Lester Levenson who developed a technique back in the fifties to release emotions that he had been holding onto all of his life. He didn’t do it so that he could sell it to anyone; he was already a very wealthy man. But he had been sent home to die after having been told by doctors that he had just a few weeks to live after suffering his second heart attack. He set his formidable mind (he was a physicist and engineer) on trying to pinpoint the internal causes of his ill health rather than obsessing on adding to his material wealth.

To make a long story short, he realized many things, but the biggest thing was that he was fiercely clinging to a set of emotions that he equated with being “Lester.” He realized that he was capable of releasing these emotions, and then corresponding positive emotions would replace them. Many would say there you have it, that’s what the Law of Attraction is about. But it’s not. It doesn’t stop there. Lester realized that you needed to release the positive emotions as well and enter a state of mind that he called “hootlessness,” when you simply don’t care about your “stories,” the experiences and emotions that you identify with as being your personal identity.

Lester lived for many years after his discovery, and when I heard about all of this, it made sense to me. Most of us feel as though emotions are good, especially positive ones, but they take up space, as it were, and inhibit the free flow of energy that enables us to manifest more and more fresh experiences in our lives. When you consciously release these emotions, you find yourself entering into more peaceful and placid states of mind, ridding yourself of this internal chatter and emotional clinging so the universe can do its work and elegantly coalesce around your perspective in a manner that is aligned with your stated intentions.

Is any of this stuff true? If I felt as though it was, I would release that feeling. And if I felt that it wasn’t, I would release that as well. Get the idea?