The cost of a lid

From an early age I learned how to shut down my emotions and judged myself for feeling them. In the playground or the classroom, if I felt hurt by something someone said or humiliated by the teacher, I did not let it show. I shut down the emotions and put a lid on them. By the time I got to adulthood I was an expert at this, never really letting anyone in or trusting them, and I did not trust myself either. I never really knew myself. I felt like a fraud and an imposter for most of the time. I put on a brave face, had a tough exterior, pretended I was ok, when inside I felt like I had a black hole that I could not fill up. If I had a disagreement with someone and I felt hurt, I simply stopped talking to them, I avoided them and ran away from the emotion and cut myself off from what I saw as the problem (them). I had no clue how much I shut down to “protect myself.” I felt heavy inside and I never understood why. I judged myself and my emotions, if I felt vulnerable or sad, I saw that as weakness and I could not bear to feel weak. I was merciless in my punishment of myself. Most of the time I could not identify what I was feeling I only knew that it was not allowed and had to be shut down. I got really good at forming an outer tough shell, a lid, a mantle.

Most of us have not been given permission to feel any and all of our emotions and when they were not acceptable we did what we considered was the safest option, we put a lid on them and shut them down. Some of us have lived our whole lives like this, until we begin to understand that emotions are natural. That when they are allowed and can simply come and go as “nature intended” without a story, they are over within a few seconds.

Become real

In one of her meditations Brandon takes us through a simple process of lifting that lid, of allowing our younger you to express and be real. Brandon calls it taking the lampshade off.

This can feel scary at first as we are habitual by nature and most of us have spent time doing anything but taking the lampshade off. There is a saying that “the truth will set you free” and when we have the courage to heal, we begin a journey of setting ourselves free and releasing our inner truth. We begin to trust and love ourselves and nothing is hidden anymore.

The cost of keeping the lid in place is high, you do not need me to tell you that, it is something you have probably already discovered for yourself. Alternatively, there is no cost in lifting it and taking the lampshade off, that is absolutely FREE and brimming with possibilities and you may be surprised at how easy it is.

Join Brandon in The Journey’s Divine experiment.

Prema Joy

Accredited Journey Practitioner

Prema Joy (58 years old) has been with The Journey since 2005 and been an accredited Journey Practitioner since 2007. She lives in Adelaide Australia and is a mum and grandmother.

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