As we grow up, we all learn how to suppress emotions – maybe we fear the emotion too painful to experience; maybe because of conditioning “children should be seen and not heard” “big boys don’t cry” – for whatever reason, difficult emotions, such as anger, sadness or fear in some form are suppressed. This process creates many problems for us. A build-up of old, unsettling emotions from the past deadens our aliveness, inhibits our creativity, muddles and confuses the expression of love in precious relationships. Further suppressing and keeping our emotions “under control” drains physical and emotional energy and can limit worthwhile daily activity. Most people are only vaguely aware that they carry what can amount to quite a heavy burden around and fewer still have any understanding that it is possible to release and resolve this toxic emotional accumulation.

Yet, while suppressed emotions are very undesirable, the important question most people would ask is “How can I safely release suppressions so that I can live a freer, happier life?” Hopefully this brief article will shed some light on this important subject.

Carl Jung stated that virtually all that would have to happen to have heaven on earth is for each person to own their own shadow. Our shadow comprises all those facets of ourselves that we have been taught to reject in one way or another – whether this is done by denial, simply forgetting, judgement or fear. However this process happens, everything which forms part of our shadow takes up residence in the realm of the unconscious as suppressions of life energy. As such, this unconscious material acquires a power which is far greater than it would otherwise contain, much as ordinary ingredients heated in a pressure cooker become potentially explosive when they are bottled up with no safety valve to vent the inner seething contents. It is a subtle process and one that has to be unravelled in order to gain clarity.

In human experience one of the most common vents for suppressions of energy is to project it outside ourselves. We typically blame someone or something outside ourselves as a way to escape experiencing the hot contents of our own unfelt energies. By learning a specific model for taking responsibility for and accepting ownership of the emotional energies deep within – without judgement nor blaming anything or anyone else nor ourselves – we allow ourselves, or become willing to feel these energies. This process is effectively facilitated by using a natural breathing technique which is cleansing and healing.

As suppressions begin to clear, the individual will be amazed and delighted to discover that the benefits are lasting and contribute to enhanced health, greater wholeness, clarity and personal peace in every area of life. Many, many people who have experienced Breath4Life™ are already living freer, more fulfilled and productive lives. (Please see testimonials.)

The goal of life for all humans is to become happy and peaceful – open and receptive to the joy of aliveness, to one’s own higher creativity and the ability to give and receive love. Continuing with the pressure cooker analogy, boiling potentially dangerous contents can heat them to the point where we say that a person “blew his top”. A good example of this is road rage, where all the anger which has not been experienced in a healthy way explodes out of proportion to the situation. In a less dramatic but no less damaging way, suppressions of fear can lead to panic attacks or to an inability to take the smallest risk in life.

How then can this lethal storage be managed and the pressure equalised so that, ultimately, the lid can be safely removed? This is just what is possible through the technology of Breath4Life™.

To use a different analogy, we might imagine sitting in a movie theatre watching a painful human drama as it unfolds on the screen – perhaps identifying strongly with one of the characters. If for a moment you were to withdraw your attention away from the story and focus on the technicalities of the movie theatre you might realise that, of course, the screen is just a blank screen and the light coming out of the projection booth is just white light. What then is creating all the drama on the screen? It is the film which is feeding through the projector. Breath4Life™as a tool for healing begins to dissolve the images on your film (the unconscious). As a result, the picture which is projected onto the screen of your life begins to be freed of painful contaminated images, eventually becoming clear and available for images of healthful, balanced, joyful living.

Experience this technology for yourself – you have nothing to lose. I and my colleagues regularly run Taster Days. Please see this website and the Acorn to Oak website for more details.

(c) Acorn to Oak, January 21st 2003