Teal Swan: Feel

“The worst thing you could do in your life is to be determined NOT TO BE AFFECTED by life. This is the harm that the glorification of the "enlightened guru" has done to us. The enlightened guru seems unaffected by life. This could not be further from the truth. The enlightened person lets himself be completely penetrated by life, but in the absence of resistance to that penetration, in the absence of resistance to being affected, there is nothing in him for life to injure or destroy. If you strive to be unaffected by life, the resistance you have is to FEELING.”

“Remember this universal truth… You are a part of this universe. It can’t hurt you without hurting itself. This means it is in the universe’s best interests for you to feel good and to get what you need and want. It is on the side of your greatest good and is taking you there in ways you may not always understand. It is taking you there even if the short cut to get you there takes you straight through hell.”

“Love is not just a virtue or an emotion. It is the basis for all physical and nonphysical being. All things created were created from love to love. Love is in essence the profound feeling space of total and complete oneness.”

“We have been raised in a primitive society that thinks of destiny in these terms: What SHOULD I do with my life? It is time that we graduate to higher understanding. The higher understanding is that "should" is not a concept which exists within this universe. Your destiny is instead encoded in these words: What do I WANT to do with my life? What fills me with PASSION? What causes me to feel JOY? Answer these questions for yourself and you've started on the path of your destiny.”

“The problem isn't how you feel, it's that you don't feel SAFE to feel how you feel.”

“Spiritual bypassing is the cancer of the spiritual world. It is a disease that has run rampant in both religious and non-religious circles. Spiritual bypassing (or whitewashing) is the act of using spiritual beliefs to avoid facing or healing one's painful feelings, unresolved wounds and unmet needs. It is a state of avoidance. Because it is a state of avoidance, it is a state of resistance.”

“The only emotions that you can heal are the ones that you let yourself feel and express.”

“Stop trying to feel better, instead become better at feeling.”

“What is on the other side of any addiction? Something you are desperate to avoid. You stay addicted and you can't let go because letting go means falling back into what you are desperate to avoid… such as a feeling of being unsafe, isolation, lack of belonging, loneliness, emptiness.”

“In today's world, a war has been declared against feeling. Today, and for as long as it takes, I ask you to stand with me on the side of feeling.”

“The healthy form of attraction is a warmth. The way you experience it in your body is instead of it being a tension and an inhale, it's like an exhale. If the positive attraction that you feel is that relaxation and relief in your body, that's the healthy sensation. The person you're supposed to be with in partnership feels more like home, not excitement.”

“Regardless of whether it is a friendship or a romantic relationship, emotions and feelings are the heart of every healthy and meaningful relationship. Without a healthy emotional life, a relationship is not a relationship, it's a social arrangement.”

“A harmonious life is made possible by a harmonious union between your mind and your heart. Feelings cannot be controlled by the mind. And any attempt to do so is to perpetuate an abusive marriage between the mind and heart.”

“A cover emotion is an emotion that exists to keep you out of a lower vibrational feeling. For example, anger is a cover emotion for fear. The cover emotions are like ice over a lake that prevents you from falling into the deep water beneath. Numbness or lack of feeling is in fact a cover emotion for the emotion of despair.”

“Your EMOTIONS are the indication of whether the thought you're thinking at this moment is in alignment with the frequency of your desires and Source or out of alignment with your desires and Source. If you think thoughts which are out of alignment with Source, you feel negative emotion. If you think thoughts which are in alignment with source, you feel positive emotion. You are biochemically hard wired to go in the direction of alignment.”

“One of the most painful things about this path is to recognize things about yourself that aren’t “as they should be”. And the reason you think things should be a certain way is because you’ve been taught that they should. Every spiritual tradition, just like greater society, comes complete with all kinds of values, expectations and beliefs. These all add up to one thing: A SHOULD STANDARD. This is how you should be. This is how you should feel. This is what you should think. This is the reality you should perceive. And the reality is, you will always fall short of that should standard.”

“Fear is not something to be ashamed of. We cannot condemn fear without simultaneously condemning the fact that we are alive. It is part of being alive. Fear is valuable. Take every opportunity where you feel fear, to step into the feeling of the fear, explore it. Bring awareness to it. And question it fully.”

“If you take responsibility for telling people the truth at the same time as taking responsibility for making people feel good, you will often find yourself stuck in a serious contradiction.”

“Most people think that love is to feel intensely positive towards something or someone. This is not the case. That is the byproduct of love. To love something is to take it as a part of yourself.”