Synthia Andrews - The Path of Emotions: Transform Emotions Into Energy to Achieve Your Greatest Potential

THE PATH OF EMOTIONS

Transform Emotions Into Energy to Achieve Your Greatest Potential

DR. SYNTHIA ANDREWS, ND

Copyright 2013 by Dr. Synthia Andrews

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

THE PATH OF EMOTIONS
EDITED AND TYPESET BY KARA KUMPEL
Cover design by Lucia Rossman/Digi Dog Design
Printed in the U.S.A.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Andrews, Synthia.

The path of emotions : transform emotions into energy to achieve your greatest potential / by Synthia Andrews ;

foreword by Iona Marsaa Teeguarden.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60163-238-8 -- ISBN 978-1-60163-560-0 (ebook) 1. Mind and body. 2. Emotions. 3. Vitality. I. Title.

BF161.A62 2013

152.4--dc23

2012039160

The primary tenet in every spiritual tradition is to love one another.
This makes the path very clear: Remove from
within every resistance to love.

In memory of Suzanne Smith Ramsby
October 24, 1934 to October 7, 2012

This book is dedicated to my husband,
Colin Andrews,
who shines the light of true North.

First and foremost, I must always thank Johanna Sayre for her endless help in developing and proofreading my manuscripts. Her guidance is never restricted to phrasing and grammar. She has an innate ability to feel the heart of what I am trying to say and help me say it. My thanks to her come with deep gratitude.

Next, the two intrepid artists:

Mark Johnson (19572011), who originally prepared the art in this book for my earlier Career Press publication, The Path of Energy. The art in this book is among the last he offered the world, and was done with a shaking hand as he entered his last months. There were mornings when neither of us thought he would finish, yet his dedication never wavered. I like to hope the meditations that he illustrated helped in the days before his passing.

Wayne Mason, who has repeatedly come to the rescue with artwork for illustrations, and Website and cover design, has never disappointed with design or deadline. My gratitude and thanks abound! You can view his art on my Website, www.thepathofenergy.com .

Thanks to my Jin Sin Do Bodymind Acupressure teachers: JSD creator Iona Marsaa Teeguarden, Deborah Valentine Smith, and Jasmine Ellen Wolfe. A special thank you to Iona for helping fashion the description of her emotional kaleidoscope, which redefined an aspect of my approach. Opinions in this book are mine and should not be taken as a reflection of JSD. Also, a thank-you to mentor Louisa Poole, who introduced to me to myself.

Thank you to all those at Career Press who have supported this project and made the work go easier: Kirsten Dalley, Michael Pye, and Laurie Kelly-Pye, as well as line editors, formatters, and all the others whose work adds to the final product.

And finally, but not least, many thanks to my agent John White and the Career Press acquisitions editor, Adam Schwartz, who were willing to take a chance.

The Path of Emotions celebrates the creative enjoyment of life through embracing the power of emotions. Emotions command our life-force and direct our choices. They provide information and guide our exploration of subtle energy. My personal journey into this realm began after reading a book on auras, the radiant energy fields that surround us, by medical intuitive Edgar Cayce. Within a few years I found Carlos Castanedas book The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968), and my life was permanently altered.

Castaneda wrote a series of books that detailed his experiences with his mentor, Yaqui Shaman Don Juan Mateus. Reading his books created an internal shift of perception that expanded my awareness into the energy level of reality. Especially liberating was Don Juans treatment of emotions, highlighted in this quote from The Teachings of Don Juan: No person is important enough to make me angry. The implication to me is that we can, to some extent, choose our emotions.

This countered everything I previously understood. I believed myself trapped in cause and effect, whereby people, events, and circumstances caused me to react with anger, happiness, fear, and so forth. I behaved as though expression or suppression of what I felt were my only choices. However, Don Juan indicated that events create an emotional response based on our beliefs, on the paradigm in which we live. Some emotions are purely survival, such as the fear that impels us to run from danger, but others are choices based on preconceived ideas. What if we change our preconceived ideas and, by doing so, choose a different set of emotional responses? Can we then consciously engage our emotions and direct their power? The possibility of this was mind-boggling, and entirely changed the manner in which I approached life. For me, it emphasized two important principles.

First, emotions are gateways to our personal power. Today it is commonly understood that nobody can define anothers worth, or cause another person to act or behave in a certain way, unless the person being influenced abdicates his or her power. In 1974 this thought was revolutionary and it reoriented my life. In the blink of an eye, I moved from being a victim of my circumstances to being an explorer of enormous vistas of possibility. The question became: Was I going to give away my personal power by allowing events and people to determine my emotions, or did I have a choice?

Accepting ones personal power requires taking responsibility for all the circumstances in ones life. Common wisdom says we cannot choose our emotions; they are instinctive. I suggest that by moving to the formative level of emotions, we can extract the information they carry and consciously transform the powerful force they exert. I am not advocating suppressing emotionsfar from it. I am advocating embracing them. It is a shift in paradigm.

Shifting paradigms requires disciplined attention and takes work. The challenge is to respond to every experience not as good or bad, but as an opportunity to grow. In the words of Don Juan, The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. Sometimes we meet the challenge well; sometimes we dont. How well we walk the path is not as important as being committed to staying on it, regardless of how long it takes us to become elegant in our effort.

The second, more scintillating principle is that there is a link between emotions and subtle energy. Emotions are more valuable than gold; they carry our intent into the world. What is personal power other than the ability to gather and command our own energyto use it, build it, or store it with intent? Mastering the use of emotions is one of the keys to personal power, opening a door into the kingdom of subtle energy. Wasting them siphons away our vitality. Consequently, understanding the mysterious and intractable connection between energy and emotion became the central focus of my life. As Don Juan would say, it is my path with heart.