In His New Book, Yung Pueblo Offers More of His Deeply Moving Poetry To Help Us Lean on Ourselves In the Face of Turmoil

Please enjoy the following passages from The Way Forward, Yung Pueblo's latest collection of poetry and short prose.

I

an eon's worth of sorrow
pain gathered through the ages
an ancient feeling of loss

the struggle has continued
inside of you
for long enough

the light of acceptance
settles the agitation
and opens the door to letting go

what you felt before
will not always leave quietly

sometimes the past will roar
through your sensations
as you cut the root
of what you held for far too long

(silence)

II

being willing to face your inner storms sometimes gets you so focused on your emotions and your past that you forget to look up and notice that you have taken many steps forward, that life is not the same anymore, and that your behaviors are more supportive of your happiness.

there is a moment of victory that eventually happens when you take your growth and healing seriously. you start to notice that you are no longer the same person who started the journey. every day is not a great day—there are still plenty of challenges—but there is a new freshness to life and the low points are not as low as they once were.

tough emotions don't control your actions the way they used to. when you do react, it is no longer as intense or overwhelming. you are not perfectly happy all the time, but that was never the goal. instead, you feel a new sense of calm because you've more deeply embraced the inevitability of change. you don't fear the ups and downs but have learned to glide with them.

joy is more available to you because you spend time cultivating your patience and your ability to appreciate the present moment. you know that there is still much to heal and more ways to grow, but you are familiar with the rhythm of observing, accepting, letting go, and allowing transformation to occur organically.

III

on feeling

the ability to feel is often seen as a burden combined with a blessing. it is not only one of the essential mediums that you use to navigate life and the world but also where your greatest joys begin and your deepest sorrows take root. heartache and happiness exist on different ends of the same spectrum of emotions. how you react to what you feel is often your greatest source of dissatisfaction and stress. more, your past and present manifest themselves through your ability to feel. your conditioning is not just something that is intellectual; it is also experienced through the sensations you feel in your body. how you feel often morphs from something that is meant to inform you into something that dominates the way you think and act. healing and personal growth are grounded in establishing a new relationship with what you feel.

the default for many is that they let their feelings make decisions for them. this does not always yield the best results, because what you feel often dramatizes the narrative in your mind and leads you into making big decisions based on impermanent emotions. when you let your strongest emotions take center stage, it becomes easy to feed your own tension—like when you react to your anger with more anger, which simply makes the tension you feel bigger and bigger. we often react to strong emotions by forgetting that the ever-present law of change ensures that what we feel in this moment will not last forever. a storm may be powerful, but no storm is endless.

giving space to what you feel is always valuable because it is an essential part of healing and letting go, but if you let it take control, then it will be too easy to fall into past patterns. being with it is better than becoming it. there is a subtle space you should become more familiar with, the space where reclaiming your power is truly possible—the space where you can feel a fire burning within you without giving it more fuel.

this spaciousness of mind becomes more available to you when you realize that your first reaction is just your past trying to re-create itself. left unchecked, your reactions will keep you in a loop where you are looking at your present life through the lens of your past emotional history. if you keep giving power to your first impulse, then you will keep reacting the same way you have reacted in your past. this way of living leaves little room for growth and for anything new to emerge.

the challenge you face is building enough self-awareness so that you can actively and repeatedly say no to your past when it wants to take over. saying no to your past doesn't mean suppressing it; it just means that you will let yourself feel whatever has come up, but you make the choice to allow your present self to remain the dominant force.

the days of letting your old fears and anxieties make all the decisions for you are over. a new time has arisen where you are patiently creating room so that your present self can decide what actions will keep you on a path that is truly nourishing and liberating. it is time to let the past rest and fully embrace the present.

IV

your healing creates waves that are consciously and

unconsciously felt by others. the vibration or energy you emit

moves outward and influences your environment and those in

it. your peace can be felt by others and invites them to remain

in tune with the peace they already carry within themselves.

your sense of balance during difficult times is not only a pillar

others can lean on, it shows them that they, too, can remain

calm during a storm. sometimes people may even say to you,

"it feels great and calming to be around you."

what we feel within us functions like an invitation for others

to join us and feel the same, whether it is dense and heavy

emotions or light and caring ones. when someone close to

you gets angry, it's easy to match that anger with your own

because the wounds of the past remain deep within your

subconscious and are easily activated and pulled to the

surface.

a powerful sign of maturity is the ability to dwell in the mind-

state of your choice, even when others fill your shared space

with negativity. being able to live within the energy of your

choosing is a sign of great emotional development.

when you choose peace, it supports the peace in others.