This Spiritual Icon Was Lost In Life Until He Learned Emotional Literacy

Gary Zukav would be the first to tell you that he wasn't always the spiritual icon he is today. In fact, the New York Times bestselling author of Seat of the Soul admits he was walking through life frightened, lost, and full of addictions. 

"Anger and addiction to sex were some of the frightened parts that were the most strong in my personality," he says on this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast. "It was part of my identity... I was pushing people away. I was creating distance, and with that distance came loneliness, and with that loneliness came more anger." He continues, "I was so frightened that I wasn't aware of what frightened me most." 

"[Emotional awareness] is where the spiritual rubber meets the spiritual road," says Zukav. "Emotional awareness tells you exactly when that traction is needed." It will help you realize that you're angry because you're jealous, or because you're judgmental, or because you're upset. When you understand and unpack those emotions, you won't feel so overwhelmed by them—it certainly worked for this spiritual teacher. 

So how do you practice emotional awareness, you ask? The first step, according to Zukav, is to actually focus on physical sensations: "I'm talking about experiences that stab, burn, churn, sting, ache, throb," he says. "The physical sensations that come with [fear] are as painful as accidentally hitting your thumb with a hammer when you're aiming for the nail." In other words: Heartache really does hurt, so reach for those physical sensations and determine what they're trying to tell you. 

"This is emotional literacy," says Zukav. "When fear is present in you, not only are the physical sensations painful, but the thoughts are critical and judgmental of others or yourself." Meaning, that fear and those physical sensations are linked; so when those painful feelings start to crop up, you can understand that some semblance of fear is activated inside your body—be it rage, vengefulness, righteousness, jealousy, inferiority, entitlement, etc. "You can recognize fear with every [consuming] thought you have," says Zukav. 

That said, the first step to acting with love is to, well, know when love is active inside of you. "These messages tell you when fear is active in you and when love is active in you," says Zukav. "And that's very important information to know because when you act with fear, you create painful consequences for yourself. And when you act with love, you create constructive and blissful consequences for yourself." 

By being able to distinguish between love and fear, Zukav can focus on love and make decisions that align with his true purpose. However, that's not to say the fear has no meaning: Actually, Zukav says recognizing fear is an important part of spiritual growth.