Clearing Energy of Yearning/Longing

[Zoë]

Wanted to start a conversation or thread about what yearning is. Want to learn from how others process this energy in their own life. What does yearning signify/mean to you?

[swansong]

I'm interested in the same! I've been struggling with this energy and would love tips on how to transmute it.

[sunsh!ne]

Hi!

I really loved this question and I wanted to weigh in. Recently, I've been experiencing a kind of depressive state that feels like somewhere I know I've been before and, before now, it felt a lot more "comfortable" in the sense that I wasn't as aware that there was more beyond this specific bubble of feeling.

I think before now, before I've had some of the tools that I've been practicing and learning, "longing and yearning" always encompassed a region of my energy and my power that I didn't think I could access. I would spend a lot of time in my head and out of my body while I longed to be actually in my body and empowered in it.

I'm realizing that a lot of the root of this internal energy dynamic has come from my lack of belief in the possibility of a better suited, a more empowered and authentic state of being. Now that I've returned to this space, I'm doing something very different than I've done here in the past: I'm actually feeling my feelings. I'm not pushing them off to another time when I'll be "stronger or more capable" of feeling them. I'm letting that yearning feeling turn inward and I'm questioning how I can become what it feels like I long for so badly.

I'm using kundalini yoga, EFT and affirmations to question some of my beliefs and rewrite the story of what I think is possible. I feel, in real time, a lot of the ways that my old beliefs fight me as I create new ones. It's not easy but the person I long to be is someone who is up for the challenge.

I'd be interested to hear what others have to say! Thanks for this question and thank you to anyone who read this.

[evangelitsia]

Love this question! I don't think there's a one size fits all answer that I could give but can definitely speak to moments of yearning that I've experienced and how I try to interact with those feelings now in succinct way.

I think every time I find myself yearning or longing for something I've been pulled out of the present moment and am ruminating on something in the past that I feel I've lost or was taken from me; or am yearning for a future that I think I want to come to fruition. This pulls me completely out of my home frequency and what I find I need to do when this happens is fill myself up with more of myself and the vibrations I know I love to operate in. I usually require what I refer to as a little physical jumpstart, so for me that looks like going on a run (I like to imagine foreign energy falling away from me and into the wind/trail/road etc. to be transmuted by the earth/returned to sender) or some other higher intensity exercise. Then grounding it in whatever way feels good. Usually that includes a meditation with energy work but I've also found qigong so helpful since I tried a class provided by Steven.

I hope that doesn't sound too simplistic because this is definitely one of the 'hardest' energies I encounter. I find meeting it with acceptance and joy of my present moment my most effective tool, and the rest is for me to bring integrate it more into my physical body.

Such a beautiful question, thank you for sharing -- I'm looking forward to see what other tools or strategies you folks use.

[Binta]

I love this question! I've been meditating on this lately and working through my own definitions of desire versus craving or yearning.

There is this passage from the tao te ching that I have legit been thinking about for a year since I read it. Its from #15:

"Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?

The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things."

I come back to these words often.  Especially when that yearning sensation creeps up. It feels like an addiction, particularly when it comes to food and money/work for me. Sometimes it feels like Im always craving something, needing to pacify my body with mostly unhealthy eating.

I'm still open and curious about all the layers of why food is such an emotional trigger for me , but after taking several fasting periods I know that when I'm craving/yearning this is me running away from myself. Its a deep feeling of not wanting to exist with what is showing up.

From a work stand point I found myself super agitated and stressed a few weeks ago with this feeling of needing something to change externally so I could feel better. What I noticed was even after my situation changed, and I got the job, the craving just switched to something else! Lol I had trouble getting back into my body to even feel the "win" fully. Me and my inner squad talk about this alot and lately I'm able to find lightness in these patterns instead of shame.

I'm learning that I prefer organic, creative desire to longing, but I'm still working on retraining my nervous system and neuro network to align to this feeling.  

When I'm feeling relaxed and loving in my body and I get a sensation that I want to go somewhere or experience something and it feels effortless, that feels really good! More of this please! Thats what I'm calling in 😊

Thank yall for this thread! Love reading all the reflections here! 💗