Imagine you are going for a walk along the beach. The gentle breeze is soothing to your soul, and the warm sand feels amazing under your bare feet. You wander down to the water’s edge and lose yourself completely as you watch the waves lapping at the shore.
You’re mesmerized by the flight of the seagulls, suspended in mid-air as though they were held in place by an invisible string. Off in the distance you see a lone surfer paddling his way toward the few waves that are beginning to appear not far from the horizon.
Suddenly, you feel a sharp pain in your foot and something warm and wet trickling down your ankle. But you don’t want to ruin the experience of the moment, so you try to ignore it. You don’t even look down. You just turn your foot on its side, which seems to lessen the pain a bit, and continue walking toward the pier.
You hobble up the concrete steps and along the wooden planks above the waves, heading toward your favorite restaurant, where your best friend is waiting for you. Your friend notices the grim look on your face and asks what’s wrong.
“I don’t know what it is. I was enjoying this great walk on the beach, but few minutes ago my back started hurting. Guess I’m just under a lot of stress. Maybe I need a massage.”
Had you paid immediate attention to to the painful sensation, you would have looked down to see that you’d stumbled over a broken bottle that cut a deep gash on the inside of your foot and ankle. You’d have sought out some sort of medical care – first aid – to address the problem and make sure that your wound had the best chance of being properly healed.
However, in wanting to focus only on the pleasant, you’ve ignored – denied – missed out on some critically important information. In the weeks and months ahead, you will continue to wonder about your back pain and fail to take care of the real issue of the gash in your foot. Which, by the way, would have been a rather straightforward healing process.
Our emotions are not all that different from our physical feelings. For more information, get instant access to my new eCourse now @ “Getting” Emotional.
