Containing vs stuffing

A couple weeks ago I had a moment of feeling extremely angry at someone, and holding that anger in. Ive been working a lot with not reacting when I feel anger flare up, practicing my Yoga and breathing, and BRFWA (Breathe,Relax, Feel Watch and Allow) something my teacher William taught me. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes I do react and end up hurting others, and myself.

 In the type of Yoga I practice and teach, we talk about strengthening the container-ourselves- to contain all our energy, and the energy we raise during our sometimes intense practices. Pranakriya yoga churns you, its designed to bring up your stuff, so it can be healed. Emotions are just different forms of energy. Many times during class, and especially during YTT, strong emotions, old wounds would surface. My teachers taught how to breathe into and be with these times. Stepping back into the Witness, we can get out of the tangle of emotions, feel what we are feeling...allow ourselves to feel it, acknowledge our pain, and allow that pain to flow through and out of us.

 I can recall during YTT one of my groupmates said Yoganand and her had talked about crying, and that he said something to the effect that crying was expending the energy and that we should learn to contain it. (not his exact words- I cant recall them now almost 2 years later) I remember thinking, and saying to her that that sounded too much like stuffing emotions and that I disagreed with it.


 A couple weeks ago when having my anger flaring, I did breathe and contain it...but felt kind of like I was stuffing it. I recalled my conversation during YTT and wondered what the difference was between containing and stuffing. I know this is something I have struggled with, knowing when I am containing and when I am just stuffing, as I have done most of my life, having grown up in a house where emotions, especially anger, were not allowed to be expressed.

 I contemplated this most of the morning, and came up with these answers. YMMV :-)

 Stuffing is when you do not allow yourself to have or feel emotions. You try any way possible- sex, drugs, booze, food, TV,exercise...etc to distract yourself and numb the emotion. You view emotions as weakness, evil, or bad.

 Containing is allowing yourself to feel...but not reacting from those emotional states. Emotions come up, you notice them- "Hey, I'm feeling really angry right now". You breathe (even just for 10 seconds works!) you feel, you notice where you're feeling, what you're feeling, and maybe you even delve a bit deeper into why you're feeling what you're feeling. But you still don't react from that place.

 Containing has the element of The Witness- being able to step out of what we're feeling, all the while still feeling it, and just noticing it, noticing what is going on, in our mind, in our body, and in our heart.

 Stuffing has no Witness. There is only the Judge. Only shame at feeling what we are feeling, and blame- usually at someone else for "making" us feel that way. Total victim mentality.

 Containing is healthy. No victim here. Only a mature, responsible person in touch with themselves.

 Stuffing only hurts us, and if we stuff enough, we eventually either explode, or become so hard and numb that we dont feel *anything*.

 Especially Joy and Love.

 So grateful for this path.