Third Key: Eliminate Toxic Emotions

Lack of joy and peace in day to day life is indicative of the presence of some contamination in body or mind. To regain our inner peace we need to we need to first get rid of our toxic conditioning.

There are 7 steps to get rid of the inner toxins at the spiritual level:

Take responsibility for your present response: When you take responsibility, you empower yourself. You do not depend on another person to make you happy, nor do you give another person the power to make you unhappy.

Witness what you are feeling: On experiencing a toxic emotion, increase your awareness and note where in the body the toxic emotion is residing (e.g. stomach, neck, shoulders, etc). Focus completely on the physical sensation. This increases the ability to be a silent, observing witness and without giving power to the negative emotion.

Label your feeling: Give a simple name to the sensation in your body (e.g. fear, anger, shame, guilt, jealousy.)

Express what you feel: This is a powerful step. Write down how a particular emotion makes you feel. Then, write it from the other person’s point of view. Next, write it from a third-person perspective as though you are a neutral journalist covering the event. After writing from the three perspectives, write down the current state of your feelings.

Going through the three perspectives expands awareness which is quite useful, because as a primary response most of us contract to our own single narrow view.

Share what you feel: Share your writing, or convey what you are comfortable sharing with a trusted loved one. However, use the three points of view and dont make a case for your own point of view. This will help further diffuse the negative emotions.

Release the toxic feeling through ritual: The toxic emotions can then be released by burning your writing or emitting your toxic emotions into a rock, and throwing the rock into a body of water or telling your burdens to a worry doll. You can make up one release method on your own too.

Celebrate the release and move on: The release, the freedom from toxicity is honoured through shared joy and gratitude. This can be symbolic and simple like decorating your room.