Maybe you’ve heard that the world is waking up to a higher state of awareness. You might expect to feel lighter, more connected to your inner wisdom, and free from those old, stuck feelings. And yet, here you are—still dealing with heavy emotions that seem to appear out of nowhere. You might wonder: Am I doing something wrong? Why aren’t I feeling better yet?

The truth is, you’re not doing anything wrong. In fact, those surfacing emotions might be exactly what needs to happen for real growth. Let me explain why, and more importantly, show you how to work with these feelings in a way that truly helps.

The Misunderstanding About Spiritual Growth

Many teachings suggest that spiritual awakening is like stepping onto a cloud—suddenly everything becomes easy, peaceful, and light. But that’s not quite how it works. Think of it like this:

Imagine your house has a basement where you’ve been storing old boxes for years.

You haven’t looked at them in so long that you forgot they were there. One day, you decide to clean and organize your entire house. Suddenly, you remember those boxes. You bring them upstairs into the light where you can finally see what’s inside and decide what to keep, what to release, and what needs healing.

This is what’s happening inside you. The rising awareness on the planet is like turning on lights throughout your inner house. Those old emotions aren’t new problems—they’ve been there all along. They’re just finally coming into view so you can address them.

Why Emotions Surface When You Grow

Here’s the key: your inner wisdom knows what needs healing. As you become more aware, your soul brings forward the parts of you that have been disconnected, frozen, or hidden. These old feelings aren’t randomly attacking you—they’re asking to be seen, understood, and integrated back into your wholeness.

Think of these emotions as children who got separated from their family long ago. They’ve been living in a dark corner, scared and alone. Now that you’re ready, they’re finally brave enough to come out and find their way home. They need your attention, not your rejection.

Simple Practice: Meeting Your Emotions

Try this when you feel a heavy emotion:

Find a quiet space where you can sit comfortably for a few minutes.
Place one hand on your heart and one on your belly. Feel the warmth of your own touch.
Notice where in your body you feel the emotion. Is it in your chest? Your stomach? Your throat?
Instead of pushing it away, say silently: “I see you. I’m here with you.”
Breathe gently and imagine your breath flowing to that place in your body, bringing warmth and light.
Stay for just 2-3 minutes, letting the feeling know it’s safe with you.

The Real Work of Awareness

Being truly aware doesn’t mean floating above your problems. It means being present with what’s actually happening inside you, without immediately judging it as good or bad. This is where most teachings get it wrong—they suggest you should transcend your feelings, rise above them, or send them away with positive thoughts.

But here’s the paradox: the more you try to get rid of uncomfortable feelings, the more stuck they become. It’s like trying to force a child to stop crying without listening to why they’re upset. The resistance creates more tension.

Real awareness means learning to be with your experience without fighting it. You can notice heavy feelings without drowning in them. You can observe old patterns without becoming them. This takes practice, but it’s simpler than you might think.

The Two-Part Nature of You

You have different levels or layers within you:

Part One: The Stuck Places. These are the parts that experienced hurt, fear, or pain and got frozen in that moment. They’re still carrying that old energy, replaying the same patterns over and over.

Part Two: Your Aware Self. This is the part of you that can witness, observe, and hold space without judgment. It’s your natural, wise presence—the part that can remain calm even when emotions swirl around it.

For healing to happen, these two parts need to meet. The stuck places need to experience the warmth and safety of your aware self. They need to know they’re no longer alone in the dark basement—they’re being brought into the light of your loving attention.

Practice: Connecting the Two Parts

When you feel an uncomfortable emotion:

Take three slow breaths, feeling your body settle with each exhale.
Ask yourself: “What part of me is feeling this?” Notice what answer comes—maybe it’s a younger version of you, or a scared part, or a hurt part.
Now shift to your observer self. Imagine you can see this hurting part from a place of kindness and curiosity, like a loving friend or parent would.
In your mind, invite this hurting part to come closer to your aware, calm self. Imagine surrounding it with a gentle, warm light.
Say silently: “You don’t have to carry this alone anymore. I’m here now.”
Notice any shifts in sensation, even subtle ones. The emotion might soften, move, or transform.

Why Stuck Energy Gets Stuck

Emotional energy isn’t naturally heavy or stuck. It becomes that way when it gets cut off from the natural flow of life. Think of a river: when water flows freely, it’s clean and moving. But when part of the river gets blocked off into a stagnant pool, it becomes murky and still.

Your emotional energy is meant to flow. But when you experience something overwhelming—especially as a child—that energy can freeze. It disconnects from the rest of you and creates its own little world of fear and protection. It’s like it fell into a trance, endlessly replaying the same old story: “I’m not safe,” “I’m not enough,” “I can’t trust,” or whatever message it learned in that moment.

The beautiful news is that this energy wants to wake up from its trance. It wants to remember its true nature and flow freely again. Your job isn’t to destroy it or fix it—it’s simply to help it reconnect with your natural aliveness.

Practice: Reconnecting Stuck Energy to Flow

When you feel stuck or heavy:

Notice where you feel stuckness in your body. Does it have a color, temperature, or texture?
Imagine this stuck place as frozen water or a blocked stream.
Now bring your attention to your breath. Feel how your breath moves in and out naturally, connecting you to life.
Imagine your breath gently flowing to the stuck place, like warm sunlight melting ice or fresh water dissolving a blockage.
Don’t force anything—just allow. Breathe and imagine the stuck energy slowly beginning to soften and move.
If feelings or memories arise, let them. Stay present and breathing, knowing you’re safe right now.
Continue for 5-10 minutes, or until you feel some shift—even a tiny one.

The Challenge of Judgment

One of the biggest obstacles to healing is judgment. When uncomfortable feelings arise, your mind might immediately jump in with criticism: “I shouldn’t feel this way,” “I’m not spiritual enough,” “This should be gone by now,” or “I’m failing at this.”

These judgments create a second layer of pain on top of the original feeling. Now you’re not just dealing with the emotion—you’re also dealing with shame, frustration, or disappointment about having the emotion. This is exhausting and keeps you stuck.

Your aware self, however, doesn’t judge. It simply notices and accepts. It can look at the heaviest, darkest feelings with curiosity and compassion, knowing that they’re just energy that got stuck—not who you really are.

Practice: Releasing Judgment

When you catch yourself judging your feelings:

Notice the judgment without judging the judgment. (Yes, it’s layered like that.)
Take a breath and say: “There’s judgment here. That’s okay too.”
Ask yourself: “What if this feeling is here for a reason? What if it’s trying to show me something?”
Imagine you’re a kind scientist observing an interesting phenomenon, rather than a critic pointing out flaws.
Say to yourself: “I’m allowed to feel what I feel. My feelings don’t make me bad or broken.”
Notice how even a small shift in attitude changes how the feeling sits in your body.

Integration: When the Parts Come Together

When your stuck parts meet your aware self, something remarkable happens. It’s not like sewing patches onto a quilt where you can still see all the separate pieces. Instead, a transformation occurs.

The frozen energy begins to thaw. The stuck patterns start to release. The old hurts recognize they’re finally being seen and held with love. And gradually—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly—they dissolve back into the natural flow of your being.

Think of it like ice melting back into water. The ice was never truly separate from water—it was just water in a temporarily frozen state. Once it melts, it flows again, indistinguishable from the rest of the stream.

Your emotions are like this. The stuck feelings aren’t foreign objects that need to be removed. They’re your own life energy that got temporarily frozen. When they thaw and integrate, they return to being the flowing, vibrant energy they always were underneath.

Practice: Supporting Integration

To support the integration process:

Set aside 10-15 minutes in a comfortable, quiet space.
Bring to mind a feeling or pattern you’ve been working with.
Feel into your heart center. Notice the warmth, the aliveness there.
Imagine this heart warmth expanding, like a gentle sun radiating light.
Invite the stuck feeling into this warm light. No forcing—just an invitation.
Notice what happens. You might feel shifting sensations, emotions moving, or a sense of softening.
Stay present with whatever arises. Your only job is to be there with loving awareness.
When you’re ready, take a few deep breaths and gently return to your day.
Know that integration continues even when you’re not actively working on it.

What Integration Actually Feels Like

Here’s something important: integration doesn’t always feel peaceful and blissful. Sometimes it does—you might feel waves of relief, warmth, or love. But often, integration feels like shifting, movement, or change happening inside you.

You might feel:

Tingling or warmth in different parts of your body
Emotions moving through you, sometimes intensely
Old memories surfacing briefly
Energy releasing through yawning, sighing, or tears
A sense of something loosening or letting go
Feeling more space or lightness afterward

This is all normal and healthy. Your body and energy system know how to release and integrate—they’ve been doing it your whole life. You’re just learning to support the process consciously instead of blocking it.

The key is to stay present with the sensations without demanding that they feel a certain way. Let your experience be what it is. Trust the process, even when it feels uncomfortable.

Practice: Staying Present During Integration

When you feel shifting sensations during integration:

Remind yourself: “This is healing happening. My body knows what to do.”
Keep breathing naturally. Your breath is an anchor.
If intense feelings arise, imagine you have an inner dimmer switch. You can turn down the intensity slightly while still staying present.
Notice the sensations with curiosity: “Interesting, there’s tightness… now it’s moving… now it’s softening.”
If it becomes overwhelming, ground yourself: Feel your feet on the floor, your body in the chair, your breath moving.
Remember: You’re not trying to make anything happen or stop anything from happening. You’re simply being present.

Working With Your Inner Protector

You might notice a part of you that resists this whole process. This is often called the ego, but it’s really just your inner protector—a part that developed to keep you safe from overwhelming feelings.

This protector might say things like:

“This is taking too long. Just make it go away.”
“You can’t handle this. It’s too much.”
“Just distract yourself. Watch TV. Eat something. Do anything but feel this.”
“You’re doing it wrong. This shouldn’t be happening.”

This protector isn’t bad or wrong—it’s trying to help, using old strategies that worked when you were younger. But now you’re ready for something deeper. You’re capable of being conscious – of feeling what you feel without being destroyed by it.

Practice: Reassuring Your Inner Protector

When your inner protector gets activated:

Thank this part for trying to keep you safe. “Thank you for looking out for me.”
Reassure it: “I’m an adult now. I’m safe. I can handle my feelings.”
Explain what you’re doing: “I’m not being overwhelmed. I’m consciously choosing to be present with my experience.”
Offer it a new role: “Instead of making feelings go away, can you help me stay grounded while I feel them?”
Notice if the resistance softens even a little bit. That’s progress.

The Deeper Truth: You Are Not Your Patterns

As you work with your emotions and patterns, you begin to realize something profound: you are not these stuck feelings. You are the awareness that can observe them, hold them, and help them heal.

The stuck places are like clouds passing through your sky. Your true self is the sky—vast, clear, and unchanging. Clouds come and go, but the sky remains.

This awareness—this ability to witness your experience without being consumed by it—is your divine essence. It’s not something you need to achieve or earn. It’s what you already are, underneath all the layers.

When you rest in this awareness, you touch something universal. You realize that this same aware presence exists in everyone and everything. The boundaries between you and the world start to soften. You recognize that you’re both uniquely yourself and intimately connected to all of life.

Practice: Resting in Awareness

To connect with your essential awareness:

Sit quietly and close your eyes or soften your gaze.
Notice that you are aware right now. You’re aware of reading these words, of your body, of your breath.
Ask yourself: “What is aware of all this? Who is noticing?”
Rest back into the part of you that’s watching. Don’t try to see it—be it.
Notice: Thoughts come and go. Feelings come and go. But awareness itself is steady and peaceful.
Stay here for a few minutes, resting as this aware presence.
When you’re ready, open your eyes and notice: that awareness is still here, present with whatever you’re experiencing.

Your Unique Journey

Everyone’s path looks different. Some people release emotions quickly. Others need more time and patience. Some have many layers to work through. Others have fewer but deeper patterns.

There’s no right timeline. There’s no perfect way to do this. The only requirement is your willingness to be present with your experience, to meet yourself with kindness, and to trust that your inner wisdom is guiding you.

Some days will feel easier than others. Some days you’ll feel clear and light. Other days, old patterns will surface strongly. Both are part of the process. Both are teaching you something.

The rising consciousness on the planet isn’t making things worse for you—it’s supporting you in seeing what’s always been there so you can finally address it. You’re not falling behind. You’re not doing it wrong. You’re exactly where you need to be.

A Final Practice: Daily Check-In

Here’s a simple practice you can do daily to support your ongoing integration:

Morning: Setting Your Intention

Before getting out of bed, place your hand on your heart.
Take three deep breaths.
Say: “Today, I’m willing to be present with whatever arises. I trust my capacity to be aware.”

During the Day: Mini Check-Ins

When you notice strong emotions, pause for just 30 seconds.
Take a breath and ask: “What am I feeling right now?”
Notice without judging, then return to your activity.

Evening: Gratitude and Release

Before sleep, sit quietly for a few minutes.
Reflect: “What did I notice today? What feelings arose?”
Thank yourself for being present with your experience.
Release the day with your breath, knowing tomorrow is fresh.

Closing Thoughts

You’re not broken because you still feel heavy emotions. You’re human, and you’re healing. The planet’s rising awareness isn’t failing you—it’s inviting you into a deeper, more authentic relationship with yourself.

True spiritual growth isn’t about transcending your humanity. It’s about fully inhabiting it with awareness, compassion, and presence. It’s about bringing light to the dark corners, not by forcing them to change, but by simply being with them until they naturally soften and integrate.

Every time you choose to be present with an uncomfortable feeling instead of pushing it away, you’re doing sacred work. Every time you meet yourself with kindness instead of judgment, you’re embodying the very awareness you seek.

May you know, in every breath and every moment, that the divine essence you’re searching for isn’t somewhere distant or future. It’s right here, in your capacity to be aware, to feel, to witness, and to love—even the parts of yourself that hurt.

This is your wondrous, infinite, and uniquely universal self, alive and present right now.

Joel Bruce Wallach

Why am I still feeling heavy emotions if the planet is becoming more aware?