Revealing our feeling is the beginning of healing

At the beginning of Bhagavad Gita -1.29. Arjuna reveals to Krishna the feelings of anxiety, misery, and indecision that are overwhelming him, and thus seeking relief he surrenders Krishna in sloka 2.7. After hearing the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna declares that his negative feelings have been removed and he has been healed.

My whole body is trembling, my hair is standing on end, my bow Gāṇḍīva is slipping from my hand, and my skin is burning. Bhagavad Gita 1.29

We are also in an emotionally diseased state because our feelings are misdirected towards material things. Material things are temporary, continuously changing, and fleeting so, attachment to them always ends in misery.

Bhakti yoga which is Gita’s central recommendation purifies our emotions by redirecting them from matter to Krishna.

When we practice bhakti, we need to, like Arjuna, reveal to our spiritual mentors our feelings, especially those feelings that strongly affect us. Remembering that revealing our feeling is just the starting of our healing -It is not itself healing. We shouldn’t stay stuck in the beginning recycling old hurts and hang-ups, making our mentors or others into a dumping ground.

To actually be healed, we need to practice Bhakti Yoga. so, we should be like patients who explain their symptoms to the physicians for learning the proper treatment, similarly, we can explain our feeling to our mentors for learning how to best practice Bhakti. Analyzing our feelings under guidance can help us better understand our disease and necessary treatment.

The worldly things that trigger wild feelings within us are symptoms of our disease -they show us our attachments and weaknesses, the things we need to guard against. The devotional things that trigger sublime feelings within us compromise our customized spiritual therapy — by doing those activities more, we can get a higher taste that makes bhakti more relishable.