One of the most important secrets I've learned is that the hardest or scariest experiences that we have are actually our most powerful catalysts to joy and freedom.

All of us have experienced feelings we'd rather not experience. Most of us label these negative emotions, and they include fear, guilt, shame, anger, jealousy and many more.

When I first started facing these emotions, rather than stuffing them down or ignoring them, I was pretty confused about the process. I learned that feeling these emotions could bring me liberation. But I'd been feeling them all along! But I discovered that there is a subtle but powerful distinction in the way that we relate to these emotions in order to heal them.

Emotions that trap us are ones that we've judged as bad, and pushed away or stuffed down. But in the process of resisting an emotional experience, we've aligned ourselves with that particular emotion.