It’s amazing what we do to avoid our feelings. We distract with all sorts of numbing agents; unhealthy relationships, alcohol, drugs, binge watching tv, overuse of social media, over eating, over working, over scheduling, etc. It can get sneaky to detect our specific form of distraction because it can appear in the form of overdoing good things; over cleaning, over organizing, etc.
The thing with emotions is that if we push them down, they don’t go away; They just become repressed. Repressed emotions are emotions that we unconsciously avoid in order to not feel their discomfort. These difficult emotions don’t disappear. They manifest into other things like over reactions, short tempers, snippy comments, passive aggressive behaviors and, overtime, symptoms like depression or anxiety.
Feeling your feelings is the art of checking in to what’s going on with you beneath the surface. What's alive inside of you. Beneath the smile. Beneath all the doing and distractions that you could bury yourself in as an attempt to avoid what’s really going on emotionally. Beneath the part of us that’s not being truthful when saying, “I’m good,” “I’m fine.” “Everything is great,” when it’s really not.
Many of us weren't taught how to feel our feelings. SO, It’s easy to get in the habit of ignoring or disconnecting from our inner world, especially if past situations have brought up big, intense emotions. If we’ve experienced a past situation that brought up emotions that were too much for us to handle at the time, we might have picked up the habit of shutting off emotionally in order to self protect. If we didn’t have the skills or support to cope when hard experiences presented, it’s a natural response to shut down and numb out emotions that are too painful to feel.
The issue with this tactic is that shutting down emotions consistently can become a bad habit and lead to a permanent disconnect from our emotional state. SO, If you want to live a life that’s filled with meaningful connection and a solid relationship with yourself, it’s important to hone the skill of expressing how you feel. Both to yourself and others.
I invite you to check in with how this episode made you feel while you listened. What did it bring up for you? Are you currently relating to the lack of feeling going on in your life right now? Get curious about how you're feeling in this moment. Without trying to judge, change, fix, or distract from your emotions. Just be with them. And remember that its okay to not feel okay. Self awareness is key here and the more you practice feeling your feelings, the easier it becomes to identify what's going on inside of you to make positive shifts in your life to bring you more peace.
I hope this episode served you well, and if it did share it with a friend, or in your stories & tag me!
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