wisewords
heart and better boundaries? How can
we deal differently with feeling irri-
tated, controlled or insulted?”
A Conversation with
The old way is to get nasty or
withdraw. The new way is to not simply
Dr. Judith orloff
react when your buttons get pushed—a
behavior that perpetuates war. Practice
what I call the namaste effect, which is,
integrated physician
“I respect the spirit within you, even if I
don’t like what you’re doing.”
and wellness advocate

Can emotions serve as a path to
by barbara stahura spiritual awakenings?
It’s necessary to understand these four
basic components of emotion; their
J
udith Orloff, a medical doctor, psychiatrist, intuitive and
biology, spirituality, energy and psy-
bestselling author, synthesizes the pearls of traditional
chology. My book teaches the tools you
medicine with cutting-edge knowledge of intuition, energy
need to proactively shift your biochem-
and spirituality to create a new blend of healing wisdom. She believes that the fu-
istry, as well as your energy, and to see
ture of medicine depends upon integrating all these elements to achieve emotional
the spiritual and psychological meaning
freedom and total wellness. Her new book, Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself of what you’re going through.
from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life, is due out this month. I see difficult emotions as a labo-
ratory for spiritual growth, whereas
What is emotional freedom?
traditional psychiatry often views them
Emotional freedom is your ability to love by cultivating positive emotions and be-
more as tormentors; something to get
ing able to compassionately witness and transform negative ones, whether they’re
rid of. Each emotion is a prompt for you
yours or another’s. This skill liberates you from fear and lets you navigate adversity
to get more in touch with your heart
without attacking someone, losing your cool or being derailed by negativity. With
and expand your light. This perspective
emotional freedom, you can choose to react constructively, rather than relinquish-
changes how you deal with all emo-
ing command of the situation when your buttons get pushed. If you get mired in
tional challenges.
the muck of negativity, you can’t lead a liberated, happy life.
My spiritual teacher says we make progress on the spiritual path by beating
What does it take to overcome
ourselves up a little bit less each day. I believe that. It’s about baby steps.
fear in times of terrorism,
economic turmoil and natural
Why do individuals respond to situations
disasters?
in such radically different ways?
Part of emotional freedom is making
I’ve defined four emotional types: the intellectual, the empath, the gusher and
a vow not to lead a fear-driven life.
the rock. These are the filters through which you see the world—the default set-
That must be a deep desire in your
ting of your personality to which you revert, especially under stress. Each type
heart. Then, do everything possible to
is determined by inborn temperament, upbringing and perhaps, karma. Because
overcome fear and worry with faith in
emotional freedom means being able to remain sensitive, but centered, in an over-
goodness, trying to stay in the moment,
whelming world, it’s essential to know your emotional type. Without this knowl-
rather than catastrophizing the future.
edge, many people dysfunctionally hunker down in their type for decades, without
Courage or fear is a choice; it’s not
examining which aspects do and don’t serve them.
something that just happens to you.
What tips us off that we are absorbing others’ negative emotions?
Emotional freedom is an inner peace
Many sensitive people come to me as patients and in workshops, who have been
movement.
labeled “overly sensitive.” Like me, these people are what I call emotional em-
Judith Orloff, MD, is an assistant clinical
paths. Because we are so sensitive, we absorb the energy of others. We sense their
professor of psychiatry at University
fear, anxiety and stress and sometimes take them into our bodies. Then, we get
of California, Los Angeles. To purchase
exhausted or feel ill. People on a spiritual path tend to gain more sensitivity as they
her book and for information on a free
develop and need to learn how to stay centered and be compassionate without
video class on emotional freedom and
becoming an emotional sponge.
intuition, visit DrJudithOrloff.com
How can we calmly refrain from retaliating when attacked
Barbara Stahura, a freelance writer
by a difficult personality? in Tucson, AZ, has interviewed many
“Emotional vampires,” is my term for many difficult people such as criticizers, vic- major transformative individuals of our
tims, narcissists or controllers. I say let them be our teachers, rather than tormen- time. She may be reached at
tors. We must ask ourselves: “How do they teach us to communicate with more BarbaraStahura.com.
18 New Haven/Middlesex Counties
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