2 The importance of feeling all our feelings, including fear
Bones
2 The importance of feeling all our feelings, including fear
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Our defenses block access to our emotions, choking off our ability to get to our feeling. We need to lower our weapons.
The Pathwork Guide deepens the core teaching of emotional growth by showing that true healing requires feeling everything—especially what we most want to avoid. At the heart of the spiritual path is self-confrontation: becoming aware of our hidden emotions, defenses, and destructive patterns so we can reconnect with our true inner core.
The Guide explains that what we call “evil” is not our pain, fear, or vulnerability—but our refusal to face them. By defending against old wounds, we create stagnation in our inner life.
This blocked energy shows up as apathy, confusion, repetition of painful patterns, and even what we call laziness. In reality, this paralysis is a defense against feeling what has been buried.
A key insight is that fear multiplies when it is denied. Fear of pain becomes fear of fear itself, creating a self-reinforcing cycle.
But when we consciously turn toward our feelings—rather than avoiding them—they begin to dissolve. What seems like a bottomless abyss reveals itself as something we can move through safely.
This process requires courage and faith: the willingness to “go through” rather than around our inner experience. As we do, blocked energy releases, clarity returns, and a deeper sense of peace and aliveness emerges.
Ultimately, the path to freedom is not avoidance—but fully feeling what is already within us.
Jill Loree is the founder of Phoenesse and a longtime student of the Pathwork teachings. She has studied the Pathwork Guide’s material since 1997 and completed four years of training to become a certified Pathwork Helper.
When she first encountered the Pathwork teachings, she described the experience as “walking through the doorway of an AA fourth step and finding the whole library.”
Through Phoenesse, Jill writes and teaches about personal transformation using the spiritual psychology found in the Pathwork lectures.
Her books present these teachings in clear, accessible language to help readers apply them in everyday life. Her work focuses on helping people move from the struggles of duality toward the peace of inner unity.
Raised in northern Wisconsin, Jill began her professional career in technical sales and marketing before discovering that her true calling lay in spiritual teaching and writing.
She lives in New York with her husband, Scott Wisler, who now works with her in sharing these teachings around the world.
