How Your Difficult Feelings Might Be the Very Thing Bringing You Home
You know when life feels flat and you start googling things to cheer you up or create some excitement? I used to do this all the time.
Or you might have snapped at someone or felt really frustrated and tried to fix the icky feelings with a shopping spree or booking a holiday. Yep, I used to do that all the time too.
Well, this is only ever a temporary fix.
Because here’s the truth no one ever tells us…
Difficult moments and negative emotions are exactly what you need to look at yourself more deeply.
They’re your soul’s way of saying, “Um…you’ve gone a bit astray. Come back home!!”
The Role of Difficult Emotions
Most of us are taught to get rid of difficult emotions as quickly as possible.
We don’t tend to immediately gravitate to crying, screaming, talking, soothing, journaling, moving, breath work or reframing (even though these are all incredibly healthy).
Ignoring, suppressing or distracting are often the order of the day.
Not only that, difficult emotions are often labelled as “bad”. Heaven forbid, if they persist for too long, you might have to go and see “a counsellor”.
But what if these emotions were nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about and are actually really helpful signposts? And so what if you need a bit of help navigating them!
I’ll let you into a little secret.
Every single uncomfortable feeling you have (absolutely every single one of them), from a pang of frustration to a wave of sadness, a period of anxiety or a long standing feeling of guilt, they all hold a message.
These feelings should actually be something to celebrate. It’s your body and soul working together to say “something isn’t aligned here”.
And when you start seeing emotions that way, things stop feeling like an uphill battle. You stop dreading having to sort problems out and you start thinking about your truth, your needs and your peace.
I’m a detective these days and each time I feel angry, upset, hurt or frustrated (which isn’t often anymore), I always commit to working out where I’m out of alignment, so I can restore my equilibrium.
Why This Mixes Perfectly With Spiritual Awakening
Spirituality often enters our lives when things aren’t perfect.
It sneaks in the back door when we’re faced with heartbreak, loss, burnout or a feeling of “surely there must be more to life than this”.
This is precisely when we’re open enough to listen. Not to the world, society or other people but to our own soul.
We start asking questions like:
Why am I here?
What really matters to me?
Who am I beyond all the roles I play?
And those questions all pull you inwards. They are trying to get you into alignment and come home to yourself.
Coming Home to Yourself
When I say “coming home to yourself”, I don’t mean having a midlife crisis or reinventing yourself. I mean remembering who you were before the world told you who to be.
When you were a child, you probably had to do things you didn’t really want to do. I had to do keyboard lessons of all things that I absolutely dreaded.
A bit later in life, you may have chosen a career that your heart wasn’t fully in. I decided to be a lawyer to earn money and create a better life for myself, not because my soul was whispering that this was the perfect job for me.
We did things because we’re told they were the “right thing” to do.
What would you have done differently through your life if you’d had the choice?
So now it’s a process of peeling back the layers once and for all. Stripping back the expectations, the “should dos”, the masks we wear and reconnecting with our true self. Which is actually incredibly exciting.
Spirituality gives you the language, the stillness and the tools to do that.
The Magic Happens When You Combine the Two
When you bring spirituality into your difficult moments, something amazing happens.
You stop judging yourself for feeling bad and you start getting really curious. You stop pushing emotions away and start asking what they’re trying to show you.
Trust me, the good feelings become addictive.
Suddenly, “why is this happening to me?” becomes “what is this teaching me?”
And that’s the moment you start transforming from the inside out. Caterpillar to butterfly.
You begin to see that the very problem you wanted to escape from was actually paving the way for a much brighter, truer, more authentic version of you.
So If You’re Feeling a Bit Restless or You’re Frustrated or You Want More …
Don’t rush to fix it and don’t push the feelings down.
Just pause and ask yourself:
What might this feeling be trying to tell me?
Where have I been out of alignment?
What part of me is asking to come home?
It’s often the moment we stop resisting what’s uncomfortable, we find what we’ve been looking for: peace, clarity and joy. This is when you know you’re connected to your soul.
Final Thoughts
Difficult emotions and spirituality aren’t opposites, they’re partners. One cracks you open, the other fills you with light and together, they guide you home.
Love Abbie x