1 Emotional growth and its function

We grabbed a wrong solution like it was scissors, hoping to cut out what hurt. And we ran.

The Pathwork Guide explores why emotional growth is essential—and why we resist it. While we tend to develop physically and mentally, our emotional life is often neglected. Yet our capacity to feel is directly tied to our ability to experience happiness, creativity, connection, and love.

When we shut down our feelings to avoid pain, we also block joy, intuition, and vitality.

The Guide explains that this pattern begins in childhood. Faced with painful experiences, we draw a faulty conclusion: “If I don’t feel, I won’t suffer.” To protect ourselves, we suppress immature emotions instead of allowing them to mature.

But what we bury doesn’t disappear—it remains stuck, shaping our lives in hidden ways. Over time, this leads to numbness, isolation, and a vague sense of unfulfillment.

True growth requires reversing this process. Rather than avoiding feelings, we must learn to become aware of them, experience them honestly, and express them constructively. This doesn’t mean acting them out, but understanding and integrating them.

As we allow old emotions to surface and move through us, we clear the way for authentic feelings to emerge. Emotional maturity restores balance within us, strengthens intuition, and reconnects us with our true self—making real spiritual growth possible.

Listen to Bones
Bones, Chapter 1: Emotional Growth and Its Function
Read Original Pathwork^® Lecture: #89 Emotional Growth and Its Function