Welcoming my emotions (all of them)

Do you know this feeling, when you get really excited about something and then it’s taken away..🙁

Two days ago I got a surprise email with an invitation for an interview on a radioshow in South Korea about selfmarriage. I thought it was very cool that they found me and that the topic somehow is getting some attention. They phoned me to check the connection and said they would send me some prep questions the next day. I shared it with my friends on facebook, who shared my joy by reacting enthusiastically, which made me even more excited. The next morning (yesterday) I got another email, saying they were sorry to say that they confirmed another person for the interview.

I felt dissapointment and immediately my mind started to rationalize to get away from this feeling; “nothing bad happened, it’s not that big a deal, there’s probably not even that much people listening to this radioshow…blablabla.” Then I noticed this old pattern of neglecting my emotions and thought about my Weddingvow “Emotions are welcome. All of them! So I sat down and welcomed the dissapointment to be fully felt.

And with the feeling of dissapointment, there came a memory of my first big dissapointment (that I can recollect). When I was in pre-school I wanted to give my teacher a present, so I wrapped an orange in nice looking paper. I was really excited about it. My mother walked me to school and because we were early I could play outside for a few minutes. My mother went back home. I put my present on a little wall and played until the bell rang. When I came back to the wall, my present was gone!! Some kid had unwrapped it and ate the orange! I was so dissapointed, hurt and angry that I ran back home by myself. My mother was ofcourse surprised to see me back, tried to comfort me, and brought me back to school.

It is these little, seemingly unimportant little moments that define your life. I decided not to allow myself to get too happy and excited about something, because before you know it, it can be taken away, which causes painful emotions.
I’m learning now to allow those painful emotions back into my life, because I want to be able to fully step into my Joy too.

It’s an interesting journey.

Lots of Love,

Annemarie

Selfmarriage – dance with my shadowside

A funny thing happened on my morning walk a few weeks ago. It was a cold and sunny winterday in the Netherlands. At one moment the sun was behind me and I was walking along my own shadow for at least 1o minutes, the stream of water seeming to separate us into two. I waved at myself. Even tried some shadowy dancemoves and taking shadow selfies :-).

An #insight came to me. If I want to marry myself, I need to invite and welcome my shadowside as well. What I see as my shadowside are the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that I have put away into my subconscious, pretending not to be there. At some point in my (early) life, I have decided these thoughts, feelings and behaviors were not ok, and thus I was not ok unless I burried them deep. It is probably why so many people feel they’re not good enough. How can you believe you’re worthy and good enough if you hide parts of yourself out of fear, shame or guilt…

Shadowwork is about inviting your shadows to come out of the dark into your awareness and welcome them with your presence. Not an easy thing to do, because it can feel overwhelming and very vulnerable. I totally get my ego now, trying to ‘safe’ me by pulling me away from these strong emotions.  A thought that helps me is; nothing will come up unless I’m ready and able to deal with it. Although at times it felt like I almost died, I’m still here, alive and kicking. Maybe aspects of me actually did die. The ones that serve me no longer. What remains is a feeling of trust that I can be there for myself, even if things feel very painful. I know now that these strong ‘negative’ feelings will not kill me but flow through me like waves and make place for positive feelings once I allow and accept them fully.

I am a believer in the Law of Attraction (that which you focus your attention on grows), so I’ve always tried to keep a positive focus. That works very well, unless you’re using this positive focus to avoid something negative, because then it will only (subconsciously) fuel the negativity that you resist. And that will eventually show up in all kinds of ‘unwanted’ life circomstances. Untill you finally get it.

It was funny to realize that deeply connecting to myself resulted in deep existential feelings of loneliness. At least I understand now why I have a fear and a longing for connecting at the same time.

I also understand now, that; If we place the light outside of ourselves, in others, in circomstances to make us happy, to make us feel whole..our shadowside will silently walk with us. The moment this other person or the circumstance doesn’t give us what we want from them, our shadow starts to scream with pain, disguised in all kinds of weird behavior (anger, withdrawal, victimhood, selfhate).

The good news is; when we decide to turn inward and look at our own shadow(s) and accept them, that we put our own light on them and they will dissolve.

I’m a work in progress and that’s ok. Learning to dance with my shadows.

playfully yours,

Annemarie

 

Selfmarriage: letting go of exes

Today Facebook came with this memory of two years ago. The post got 78 likes and 15 positive comments. This is probably the most SAD picture of my life!  Seriously! It was taken on Blue Monday, on a ski-holiday with a group of friends, including my (now Ex-) boyfriend and father of our daughter. Behind my broad and seemingly happy smile, there is huge Confusion, Panic and Sadness. It was taken a few days after M told me he was unhappy in our relationship and had thoughts about ending it. What amazes me most is that I’m able to put on this happy (together) face, while at nights I totally panicked and cried my eyes out. Nobody noticed. Two months later, we broke up.

What makes me SAD now is not so much the brake-up itself. Like anything in life, there is always positive in negative. But the way how I neglected my own feelings and needs in that moment. Hiding like a shot animal in my cave, while my outer me played happy surface. That feels like a break up with myself, a self-betrayal. Definately not a loving thing. I totally onderstand now why I have difficulty in saying a wholehearted YES to myself. Deep down I don’t trust myself  for not leaving me again.

I have become and am still learning to be more open and welcoming to my emotions, either good or bad. This is slowly building trust in my heart that I will be there for me in the future. And being honest about them with others is still very scary. Taking one babystep at a time.

I’m very grateful for having a good relationship with my Ex. Last week he even brought me flowers (for buying his half of the house) and selfmade chocolates. He’s a great father to our daughter and co-parenting has brought me more freedom and personal growth. Sounds almost like the ideal Ex…;-)

Lots of Love,

Annemarie

 

 

Mirror neurones; how do they affect you?

Recent research has come up with scientific proof of ‘mirror neurones’. What are these? And how do they work?

Well, before reading on, let’s do a small experiment.

Answer this question before reading on: how do you feel right now, on a scale from 1-10 (10 is excellent, superb, never better)

Then, have a look at my picture for at least 30 seconds.

Done? Ok, describe how do you feel right now? Has your initial number changed?

So what does this have to do with mirror neurones. It turns out, that just by looking at faces of other people, we tend to experience the emotions that we see. The effect is very strong when we mimic the face we see (you may wanna give this a try), but also by just looking, without changing anything in your own facial expression, will fire some neurones in your emotional brain, that will make you feel the emotion that you see. In this case probably (and hopefully) happy.

What is the practical side of this knowledge. Well, whenever you feel a little down or sad. Just by looking at, or surrounding yourself with happy people, you will feel better.

Have a smiling day!

Annemarie Steen