Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 4 Issue - 4, 1 October 2019 | Page 6

All feelings are Good
Few days ago, as, I was driving around as usual, running errands,
suddenly a big red light, lit up on the dashboard and grabbed my
attention. It was an alert sign and It read “Tyre Pressure Check Tyres.” It
got my attention. I immediately reduced my speed and drove slowly back
home. When I got out of the car, I noticed a flat tyre. If the red signal light
had not appeared on the dashboard, I would have continued driving
around compromising my safety as well as the safety of the other drivers
on the road.
Using the above metaphor, we can see that our negative feelings are
also like the red alert signals on the dashboard of the car. They are
demanding our attention. Instead of giving them our attention, we look
outside for distractions, which only keep us from feeling them. It is so
easy to divert our attention to something outside for temporary pleasure,
rather than to feel what we are feeling. We turn to the outside world,
looking for comfort and pleasure. We suppress our feelings by eating too
much, excessive drinking, smoking, spending vast amounts of time on
the internet, watching too much television, gambling, online games,
impulsive shopping etc. These become our temporary escape from the
painful feelings. Any unhealthy behaviour, which distracts us from feeling
our uncomfortable feelings, will soon end up becoming an addiction.
Sooner or later, the temporary escape, becomes an addiction and we
think this addiction is causing the “problem.” If we deal only with the
addiction which is the “effect”, without dealing with the root “cause”, how
do we cope when the negative feelings come up again?