Emotional and Spiritual Trouble

Last week I went to the David Bowie exhibition in Melbourne. This is an amazing exhibition of a very talented man! One of the things he said was that at one stage of his life, he found himself to be in “emotional and spiritual trouble “.

I thought this was a very apt description of difficult times in our lives. The phrase has remained with me.

It got me thinking about what I am experiencing currently. Grief is grief, and some people just want me to be over it! Mr and Mrs Positive Brigade are very hard for me to be around at present. When I am with people like that, and I feel in emotional and spiritual trouble, I feel like I don’t have permission to say how I feel. I compose myself, contain myself, act like I am coping when I am not, and it feels awful! Does anyone else relate to this?

Research shows that talking about our feelings is healthy. We have a culture in Western society which shames us if we are depressed, anxious, sad or having a difficult time emotionally.

In Australia, one of the highest suicide rates is for men between 4o and 50 years old. They kill themselves because they feel they cannot talk about how awful they feel! Their shame is too great. This is indeed a tragedy.

Let’s start today and give ourselves permission to be with whatever emotions we are having and express them to those we feel safe with. Let’s be people also, who others can talk to about their emotional and spiritual troubles, without fear of being invalidated or shamed.