Emotional Mastery and The Wizard of Oz

By Leann O'neal

Remember the story "The Wizard of Oz"? Dorothy starts out unhappy with her life and a tornado takes her into a completely different existence. She walks along a path meeting the Scare Crow, Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man. All the characters are looking for the "Wizard of Oz" because they believe "he" will give them what they are "lacking". If they receive what they are lacking from the Wizard of Oz they will be "happy ever after" or so it seems. Wrong! Turns out these are illusions Dorothy has created from her own imagination. Her experiences seem real enough to believe to her.

When you are unhappy, sad, depressed, anxious, feeling down, do you search for someone else to make things better for you? Maybe you tell yourself that if you only had this job or that career your life would be great. Maybe you believe "the right partner" will make your life better.

People who are happy more often than not seem to sail through life's tragic event. How do they do it? These people have Emotional Mastery. Consciously or not, they know emotions are essential in our daily lives. Dorothy kept looking for someone outside of herself to give her the peace and love she already had within herself. Emotional Masters have discovered their core essence brings them all the love and clarity they desire to move through life with less struggles.
They don't avoid or ignore their negative emotions, they embrace them. Like the waves in the Ocean are natural as they come in raging or softly. Emotions come and go with degrees of intensity. They are natural in life experience.

How do you begin to find some mastery of emotions everyday no matter what comes up in life?

Begin by feeling your own Heart. You may ask, "How do I "feel my own Heart"?" Like the Cowardly Lion, most people don't know how to take the time to go within and notice their own thoughts, emotions, feelings and passion for life.

1. Start by finding a quiet place to recline or lay down.

2. Close your eyes.

3. At first your mind may distract you with all the things you are suppose to do or cause your attention to focus on a noise in the background like a clock ticking.

4. Tell yourself to allow your mind to distract you and let it go.

5. Don't attempt to control anything.

6. Place your hands over the middle of your chest and feel the beating of your heart.

7. Imagine your heart has energy coming from it and notice this energy is real. Imagine your Heart has a color radiating from it.

8. If not, that's okay, just keep feeling your heart. You have felt your heart ache, so feel your heart no matter what you feel there.

9. Do this technique for five to ten minutes daily around the same time of the day for three days.

10. Devotion to yourself is the key to allowing this experience to guide you.

11. On the fourth day, ask yourself to go a little longer until you feel the warmth of the energy coming from your heart.

12. On the fifth day, after the distractions have come in and you have gently let them go, ask yourself what message you would like to tell yourself. Feel the message come from a gentle place within you.

This is your intuition speaking to you. This is sometimes referred to as the "small still voice from within". Feel the joy that radiates from this still place. I invite you to discover more techniques to uncover the infinite gems within you. Dorothy and her friends always had within them what they searched for outside of themselves. You do too!

LeAnn O'Neal, MA, LMFT, Relationship Coach
http://www.LoveConscious.net