Shara Grove Holistics

I’ve written about the physical meaning of the East on the medicine wheel in a previous post (East – The Power Of Relationships), and now it’s my turn to tell you about the West, more specifically the emotional teachings.

The East represents the physical and birth, and the West represents the emotional and adulthood. The West teaches us the importance of our feelings and how nurturing them, as well as understanding how they can influence our lives.

I’m going to use myself as an example when I talk about this. As someone who struggles emotionally (more so in the past then now), I used to find it hard to label my emotion. The labels such as sad, happy, angry, never really felt accurate enough for what I was feeling internally. Internally, I could’ve had a whirlwind of emotion going on, making it very difficult to find one word or label to describe what was going on, which then only fueled the whirlwind.

As I began my journey of personal and spiritual development, I began to learn that in order to explain how I was feeling, I had to first understand what I was feeling in my body. Did I feel heavy in the abdomen? Did I want to cry? Did I have a headache? If so where was it located on my head? Did my legs feel unsteady? Were my hands shaky? By thinking about the physical ques my body had given me, I could then think about what had caused them. Did my stomach feel heavy after I heard some bad news? Did my gut begin to race when I heard a deadline? Did I get a headache from rapid thoughts?
Emotion communicates through the body, not through words which is why, I believe it can be difficult to label an emotion you are feeling, especially when you are in the moment with it. Understanding my emotions started by listening to my body (the physical).

Once you open the channels of emotional communication and understanding, you begin to learn how your emotions influence day to day life.

Adulthood begins when you behave like an adult, and to reach that point you have to clamber through all the crap before it. All the crap that you then have to reflect back on and process, in order to reach adulthood. You cannot be an adult if you still deal/process emotions like an adolescent.

The sunsets in the West, which emphasizes end of day reflection. The natural end of day conclusion. What went well? What surprised you? And how did you handle it? Is there anything you would do differently? And why?

The sunsetting can also symbolise death. It’s the end of the day and following that comes the darkness of the night, and then the sunrise for a new beginning. The West can be about putting things to rest. What don’t you want to carry with you into the next day? What isn’t needed or necessary?

When the West is unbalanced, it affects the whole person. Emotions effect the physical which will affect the spiritual (for the physical is the vessel). Emotional understanding is crucial in personal and spiritual growth.

The West requires honesty. To honestly look at yourself, look at your actions and how you choose to live your life. Honesty can be difficult and can bring up some unwanted emotions (especially if you have been avoiding them). But to be honest with yourself shows integrity. Integrity brings balance. It shows others your maturity in being able to hold yourself accountable, make changes and have strong morals that bring positive effects to either/both yourself and others.

As humans, we should never stop growing or evolving, it’s what we’re here to do. Our emotions can be our greatest teachers for they tell us what brings us pain, joy, excitement, sorrow, hurt and freedom.

Our emotions are our compass; see what directions they take you.