Catharsis or Constipation?

Catharsis is an old word. I don’t really hear anyone using it anymore. But what a great word it is! Indeed! If you REALLY want to charge up your life try this on for size… Our dictionary defines these words as follows:
Catharsis: 1. the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, esp. through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music. 2. Medicine/Medical. purgation. 3. Psychiatry. a. psychotherapy that encourages or permits the discharge of pent-up, socially unacceptable affects. b. discharge of pent-up emotions so as to result in the alleviation of symptoms or the permanent relief of the condition.
Constipation: 1. a condition of the bowels in which the feces are dry and hardened and evacuation is difficult and infrequent. 2. Informal. a state of slowing down, sluggishness, or inactivity. 3. Obsolete. the act of crowding anything into a smaller compass; condensation.
Having these definitions in mind when we are overcome by E-motion or familiar painful feelings is a good idea. Language patterns and word meaning is very relevant in healing and wellness. A negative state can overtake us if we have no tools to deal with how we feel - and since how we feel is a result of thoughts we have, often our greatest tools come in the words we use to try to cope with or understand what we are experiencing. The thoughts we have about our experiences will dictate our responses.
At times in my life, I have felt emotionally constipated – paralyzed by an overabundance, or lack of energy, and in need of catharsis. I knew that energetically, it meant my energy-in-motion (E-motion) was being blocked. In a tough economy when everything I knew had changed, after a serious relationship had ended, and through the loss of everything I had worked to achieve for two decades – I was faced with serious E-motional blocks. I realized that they were linked to a story I was telling myself, which created expectations of myself that I may not be in the position to achieve at the moment. This is where redefining my expectations had to be done. In doing so, I experienced a great catharsis after a period of intense emotional constipation.
State control is a vital element in navigating life because it is the best way to create the conditions and support for yourself to go in the direction you want. We want to be sure that we are having a catharsis and not experiencing constipation when dealing with our E-motional blocks. There can be a fine line between denial and state control - denial would create constipation and state control will produce catharsis. I assure you – usually we know at some level when we are just denying what is true. The “state” is in how you respond, not the feeling itself. This is how you can know that you are acting with integrity and from a place of wellness rather than denial. This doesn’t mean that you won’t feel bad or that things won’t be challenging. It means that you will respond with integrity in spite of how you feel. Catharsis will allow you to burn through or move past feelings that block you, rather than keep you wallowing in the morasmus of the ‘old’ story.
The process of state control begins with clarity of intent – in other words – you’ve gotta KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO FEEL LIKE! If you think you are not sure about how you want to feel – take a minute and ask yourself. It’s no mystery - YOU have EVERYTHING to do with how you feel! So decide and if you don’t like it, change it again. So don’t simply allow circumstances to dictate your state. If you allow circumstances to control your state, you are supporting a potentially RANDOM state, which can often be a negative one simply designed by your brain to protect you from further pain because it just doesnt know any better.
There may be some times when it is more difficult than others to exercise state control, such as when you are overcome by intense E-motion, or faced with confusing or multiple options, but it is also in those times that you will experience the greatest progress and develop the most E-motional muscle or personal integrity. Once you have achieved some level mastery over your state and can begin to access it at will, you will almost automatically begin to create circumstances that support what you desire – a better life, a new relationship, more freedom of thought and feeling – or any number of other things. This is where your Manifest Destiny begins.