One of the key principles to releasing emotions is in the ancient Vedic sutra moksha, which means "emotional freedom" and is a requirement for experiencing Emotional Transformation.  When we’re experiencing emotional turbulence, we aren’t free to create at higher levels of awareness or experience the spontaneous fulfillment of desire. For example, when we’re holding on to anger, we feel separate and may even feel motivated to harm others. Anger clouds our perception of unity and closes us down to the transformative messages and clues of the universe.

Transforming negative energy into a higher level of awareness is therefore one of the keys to mastering Emotional Transformation. Below is a useful exercise for identifying, expressing, and releasing emotional pain. If you practice it consistently, you will eventually be able to free yourself from toxic emotional residue. If you have been holding on to emotional pain for quite a while, consider watching a free workshop at http://www.chopra.com/freetolov , where you will be guided in a powerful process for releasing and healing the pain of the past in a very short period of time.

Emotional Transformation Exercise

1. Identify the emotion. When you find yourself in a state of emotional turmoil, find a quiet place and ask yourself, “What am I feeling?” The answer may be anger, sadness, fear, and so on. Define and describe what you’re feeling as clearly as possible.

2. Witness the feeling in your body. Notice where you feel the emotion in your body. Observe the feeling and allow your attention to stay on the sensation. Breathe into the feeling. Fully experiencing the physical sensations allows the emotional charge to dissipate.

3. Take responsibility for what you are feeling. Understanding that you have a choice in how you respond to and interpret your experience is the key to healing the emotional body.

4. Express the emotion to yourself. You can write about your feelings or speak them out loud in private. Describe the situation and the effect it is having on your heart and soul. This will help you gain clarity and insight as well as release the emotional toxicity.

5. Release the emotion through a physical ritual. Experiment to find what works best for you. You can dance with abandon, do some deep breathing, get a massage, or go on a long run. Allow your body to release the tension that is stored with the emotion.

6. Share the emotion. Once you’ve released and calmed down, share what you felt and experienced with the person involved in the situation. If you have processed steps 1 through 5, you should be able to share without blame and without trying to manipulate the other person for approval or pity.

7. Celebrate! Now it’s time to reward yourself for identifying and releasing the painful emotion. Do something special for yourself . . . listen to your favorite music, buy yourself a present, or enjoy a delicious meal.

“We are innately creative beings capable of writing a love story worth living, and we cannot afford to miss out on the opportunity to experience nourishing relationships.” ~ David Simon

Emotional pain takes many forms: the grief of loss, overwhelming stress and anxiety, major or chronic depression, job burnout, feeling stuck or trapped, heart break, lingering guilt, regret, fear of trusting again, pent-up anger, worry about the future, and shame from the past.

In the face of difficulty, most of us do our best to cope with the situation, hold it together, and keep going, but we often end up carrying emotional pain that we don’t know how to heal or release. The toxic residue of painful experiences gets stored in our emotional heart, limiting our ability to give and receive love.