Break the Shackles of Inner Turmoil: 3 Ways to Free Yourself

Introduction

Inner turmoil is the intense emotional and mental experience of an overactive mind and nervous system. It creates tension and disturbance within your being.

The experience is infused with waves of anxiety, depression, agitation, and confusion.

Undoubtedly, life can be challenging, and sometimes your life is flipped upside down. However, inner turmoil doesn’t depend on external circumstances.

Things may even be going well on the outside, but on the inside, your thoughts and emotions are spiraling out of control. It might seem impossible to find any peace.

So, if you’re experiencing inner turmoil right now, I hope this article helps free you from your pain.

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Inner Turmoil: A Gateway to Transcendence, Peace, and Inner Freedom

Years ago, my own inner turmoil drove me to self-harm, my arms and wrists were full of self-inflicted cuts and burns that temporarily distracted me from the turbulence I felt inside.

I was so depressed, my heart felt like it was being ripped apart, while an anxious tornado of butterflies stormed through me, and my mind played like a broken record of unwanted destructive thoughts that could not be shut off.

In this dark night of the soul, thoughts of suicide came up so frequently, that self-harm gave me temporary relief from my inner pain.

Although I still hold some scars from that time, it feels like it happened in another life.

Today, I am no longer consumed by my emotions to be driven to the point of hurting myself.

I am grateful for my sādhanā (spiritual practice), and all those who showed me how to break the shackles of inner turmoil and be free.

If my experience wasn’t so painful and intense, I would not have learned how to calm my emotions and quiet my mind.

And although I have not fully mastered my mind yet, I have more peace and joy in my life. I have never felt happier or more at ease in the world than I do now.

No matter how unbearable life may seem, on the other end of your suffering lies a gateway to transcendence, peace, and inner freedom.

You can read about The Dark Night of the Soul here.

Your Inner State Pervades Your Outer World

When our lives appear to be in chaos, we often jump into “problem-solving” mode. From trying to fix all the situations that seem to be going wrong, your mind can become neurotic.

This feeds your inner turmoil and enslaves you in a loop of fear and desire.

However, if you have encountered the dark night of the soul or you are experiencing it right now, then you’ve probably realized that worldly joy is fleeting.

Nothing and no one can provide you with the peace, joy, and completion that you seek.

Once your inner world is in chaos, your outer world will merely reflect the inner because it is secondary to your experience.

So, it doesn’t matter if all your needs are met or that you have more than most people. You’ll still have to learn how to connect with your inmost being if you want to be free.

The good news is that once you’ve realized that peace does not come from outside you, you’ll soon see that nothing outside can disturb your peace.

If you are particularly troubled by the world, read my article about Choosing Peace in a World of Darkness to gain a different perspective.

Awaken to Your Inmost Self

It isn’t easy to be a beacon of light in this world when you are in pain. Often our egos take over and we begin reacting to life based on our conditioning, past experiences, fears, and personal beliefs.

Through these filters, we do not see life clearly. In a way, we are asleep, and for this reason, we use the word “awakening” when we talk about transcending the ego.

When we move through life asleep and unaware of our conditioning, we suffer and cause others to suffer.

We lose touch with who we really are and begin closing our hearts to life. Yet, simply recognizing this dynamic is already the beginning of awakening.

If this awakening has begun to unfold inside you, trust that you will transcend the ego.

At times, you may seem to falter and revert to old patterns, but this new awareness will now be with you. You will know that you’re not your conditioning. This is spiritual liberation.

On the other hand, if you’re unsure what I mean, don’t worry. You wouldn’t be reading this if a shift wasn’t already occurring inside you.

So, here are 3 ways to free yourself and break the shackles of your inner turmoil.

#1 Becoming Conscious of Your Inner Turmoil: The Way of Self-Awareness

I’d like to invite you to begin looking for the areas in your life that cause you the most amount of grief.

Whether it is family, friends, work, health, relationships, school, money, or even your spiritual practice, whatever it may be, let yourself become aware of what is troubling you.

You may even have multiple aspects of your life that you are unhappy with. Search within yourself to find all the obstacles that seem to stand in the way of your happiness.

Let it come to the surface so that you may unburden your being from inner turmoil.

Once you have identified these areas in your life, remember the tendency of the mind is usually to look at the situation and try to find ways to fix it, even if these “solutions” are self-destructive.

When you can’t seem to find a solution to your problems, this creates more grief and anxiety. So instead, I would like to encourage you to take a moment to become more self-aware.

Deepening in Self-Awareness

Right now, right here, take this moment to observe your thoughts and feelings about this difficult area in your life. Take as much time as you need, and really pay attention to what comes up.

You can even close your eyes or pull out a pen and paper and write down what you’re thinking and feeling if you prefer.

Don’t try to solve anything. Your only job is to be there for yourself, as if you were a good friend, there to listen without judgment.

Just be compassionate as you explore your troubles without needing to change anything. At every moment, try to unconditionally accept yourself as you are.

Acknowledge the part of you that suffers and show yourself a moment of love and compassion.

By simply learning to accept what is happening inside, you will calm a lot of tension. And by simply being aware of inner turmoil, it loses its momentum.

You begin to see that you are just watching it unfold, and this creates space between you and all the internal turbulence.

Learn to Find Your Center in Difficult Times

#2 Letting Go of Mind Spam to Quell Inner Turmoil: The Way of Disidentification

Once you can acknowledge your thoughts and feelings, this gives you further insight to explore your mind’s role in creating and feeding your inner turmoil.

For instance, anxiety and excitement create the same bodily sensations, but our thoughts indicate which emotion is felt. Our minds feed our emotions because they are interconnected.

So, if you have unwanted, disturbing, racing thoughts, then you will feel anxious, agitated, and depressed.

Mind Spam

You see, we all experience what I call “mind spam”. When we learn to recognize it, we can let go of it and disidentify ourselves from the mind.

Imagine you’re eating dinner or trying to fall asleep at night, and suddenly your phone rings. Although you don’t recognize the number, you pick up, and it’s a spam call.

The person then says, “your life’s a complete mess, everyone hates you, nothing will ever get better.”

Just think about how you would feel if you were contacted every day by a spam caller that said what your mind tells you about your life.

You may not be able to sleep, you would feel worse about yourself, it would make you angry, depressed, and anxious.

What would you do?

Hang up already!

The thing is, if you don’t know it’s a spam call, you might fall victim to it. If you know it’s spam you may entertain it but not take it seriously, or better yet, you may hang up right away and block the number.

It’s the same thing we do with our minds. Sometimes, we entertain thoughts to see where they go and other times, we immediately discard them.

Read my article: The Perils of the Unobserved Mind

Letting Go and Disidentifying

The thoughts we take seriously are the ones we believe; they are the thoughts that pull our attention the most.

In fact, on average about 80% of our thoughts are negative. And there are many thinking traps we can fall for. When you’re anxious and depressed, that percentage might even be higher.

For this reason, you don’t need to believe everything your mind says.

None of these “spam thoughts” belong to you. They happen automatically because the mind has been conditioned towards negativity.

You have the power to deny your thoughts, but first, you’ll need to become conscious of all the dark corners of your psyche.

Let go of the need to “get rid of”, and disidentify by simply observing your mind.

To be clear, trying to get rid of unwanted thoughts intensifies them. Instead, just acknowledge them for what they are: mind spam. Just this awareness alone is necessary.

Unwanted thoughts will be there, but treat it as spam and don’t take it seriously.

With this level of consciousness, your mental turmoil loses its momentum and the thoughts eventually dissolve on their own.

Read my article about the 12 Thinking Traps You Need to Be Aware Of.

#3 Opening Your Heart Center to Release Inner Turmoil: The Way of Surrender and Acceptance

There are times it may be difficult to identify the thoughts that are driving your inner turmoil.

Sometimes, it’s hard to be in your head because there is too much noise up there, and it’s equally hard to be in your body because there is too much emotional distress in there.

So, where do you go?

Our tendency as humans is to avoid discomfort. The thoughts that are hard to hear and the emotions that are too intense to feel, make you want to close yourself off to everything.

As a result, your heart chakra closes trapping unhealed and unprocessed hurt, until you are ready to face your pain, acknowledge it, and open to it.

Non-Attachment vs. Detachment

If you practice mindfulness, you might be familiar with non-attachment, which isn’t the same as detachment.

With mindfulness, we don’t practice non-attachment by shutting ourselves down or resisting our experience. Instead, we learn to face our pain and inner turmoil without clinging to it or identifying with it.

There was a time I preferred the feeling of utter emptiness over inner turmoil. So, I dissociated and experienced depersonalization and derealization.

Eventually, the emptiness also became unbearable. It wasn’t a liberating detachment or emptiness, it was isolating. I felt dead inside.

So, if you still feel your inner turmoil, it means you haven’t fully shut down yet. And that’s a good thing!

When you have the courage to face your pain, you will break the pattern of inner turmoil and dissociation.

Yes, the physical experience of fear and sadness is uncomfortable, but feelings themselves are not dangerous. They cannot truly harm you because you are the awareness behind your emotions.

Re-opening your Heart Center

When you start to bring your attention toward inner turmoil, this is the first step toward re-opening your heart center.

Note, the pain may seem to grow in its intensity. However, being aware of your thoughts and emotions does not create them.

Rather, you are becoming conscious of what has been hidden from your awareness.

It’s always been there; you were just trying to shut it out.

Whenever we block out our pain or cling to positive experiences everything gets locked inside, making us susceptible to negative energy. Likewise, the light can’t make its way into the heart either.

We aren’t meant to hold onto the transient. So, the next time you become aware of discomfort or the desire to cling to something, give yourself permission to remain open.

Just let it all flow through you. Breathe through it all, even when it’s painful. I promise you; it passes. Inner turmoil cannot by nature last.

Furthermore, when you stop trying to cling to the good, you find a deeper joy moving in you.

Really, the only way to find peace is to let yourself experience whatever needs to be felt and let it go when it wants to go.

You’ll be shocked at how much growth and healing opening your heart center brings.

If you feel up for it, close your eyes right now and imagine your heart opening and expanding. Trust that your heart can contain, transmute, and release all your troubles.

I highly recommend trying the Body Scan Meditation. It will help you open to your experience and relax into difficult emotions and bodily sensations.

Conclusion

Inner turmoil teaches you compassion, and it is a catalyst for spiritual growth and healing.

All the pain you’ve experienced calls you to awaken and discover the peace that rests beyond your emotional and mental states.

So, let your suffering be your teacher. Let it show you what it has to offer. Use it and learn to go beyond it.

With self-awareness, and by observing your mind’s toxic patterns, and opening to your inner turmoil, you discover your infinite Self.

You will soon realize that there is a part of you that is untouched by the mind and the waves of emotions that come and go.

Inner turmoil is a ripple in time, but beneath the surface of the body-mind is a timeless space within you that is ever-free.

In the depths of your being, there is a love so safe and so pure, and when your heart touches it you transcend all the pain of this world.

Just be conscious of your experience, don’t identify yourself with it, and stay open. Merge with your timeless Self and bask in endless perfection and joy.

Everything yields to time, and you are the Timeless One. Time yields to you. Are you ready to be who you truly are?

With love,

Ravelle

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Related Articles Mentioned:

The Dark Night of the Soul

Choosing Peace in a World of Darkness

Find Your Center in Difficult Times

12 Thinking Traps You Need to be Aware Of

Body Scan Guided Meditation for Deep Relaxation