HOME
HOME> Emotions> east/west 

EC

east/west
 

John Ruskan's
Emotional Clearing

introduction
12 Step / Recovery
addiction
alpha state
anger
anxiety
art therapy
astrology
beliefs
blame
blocked
bodywork
breathwork
burn-out
chakras
compulsive eating
depression
east/west
eating disorder
emdr
emotional release
energy psychology
fear
food addictions
forgiveness
guilt
guru
holistic
hypnotherapy / hypnosis
inner child
karma
loneliness
loving yourself
manic-depression
meditation
new age
obsessive-compulsive
panic attack
performance optimization
positive attitude
psychotherapy
relationships
repression
sadness
self-rejection
spirit releasement
stress
substance addiction / abuse
suppression
the subconscious
trauma
worry

"Ruskan has achieved a challenging and difficult task, clarifying the
interface between Eastern spiritual tradition and Western psychology."
Dr. Harville Hendrix, author of Getting The Love You Want

Throughout my years of involvement in the East West spiritual healing communities, I have noticed something that has prompted the writing of Emotional Clearing : Many people who are earnest seekers after spiritual growth tend to be unfamiliar with the methods or the importance of working with the emotional component of the psyche.

They – as well as myself for a long while in the past – approach inner growth by concentrating only on the “higher” idealistic aspects that they hope to develop, such as love, and ignore the more unpleasant emotional aspects of the self. Often there is a tremendous gap in awareness about the emotional self and even the assumption that the emotions are not really important. At the same time, those involved in psychological therapy, where emotional healing is the main concern, often cannot see how to combine spiritual arts with inner work.

The premise of Emotional Clearing is that no real growth into higher consciousness can occur unless working with the emotions becomes a central part of inner work. Moreover, I hope to show that working with emotion as well as feeling in general can become a most vital and even primary path to self-realization, enabling us to release the inner forces that keep us blocked and from our full potential.

This book is the product of the merging of two cultural, intellectual, and spiritual traditions. As I have worked, I have felt these two lines of tradition meeting in my thoughts and then converging into the writing, like a prism in reverse. Like female and male, mother and father, yin and yang, each element has been necessary to fully actualize the other. In the broadest terms, the East has represented the mother – the mystical, nurturing connection to the inner source of spiritual replenishment, healing, and growth. The West has represented the father – the rational intellect, the organizing, pragmatic principle that gives form and structure to the healing force.

What has resulted is not a comparison or analysis of these two ways but a synthesis. It has been my intention to show how both paths may be unified into a single approach that will provide a system of self-work that can be followed intellectually and will lead to an opening of the Heart. I feel that this approach can be vital for us of the West in our quest for spiritual wholeness and resolution of the ever-present pain of existence.

 
 

© 2004 John Ruskan / The Institute for Integrative Processing