It’s OK to Feel Your Feelings: Express, Don’t Suppress
Emotions are not always comfortable. They are messy, awkward and can feel downright painful. They can feel overwhelming and vulnerable – even cause you to feel guilt or shame for feeling the way you do.
You may be able to fool yourself into believing that by suppressing or ignoring emotions you won’t have to face them – wrong! Trying to avoid emotions, and telling yourself not to feel them, not only impacts your well-being, it also affects your ability to communicate with others, your relationships, your performance and your choices. Suppressing emotions, pretending not to feel them and saying “I’m fine” can lead to stress, burnout and more importantly emotional fatigue – yes, that’s a real thing!
EMOTIONS AREN’T YOUR ENEMY
They are a natural and normal part of the human experience. Emotions are the one thing we all have in common. We may not have experienced the same circumstances but we have all felt angry, sad, anxious, annoyed, frustrated and disappointed.
You can’t communicate effectively when you are emotionally charged. Training yourself to be aware of your feelings is essential to being able to communicate calmly and respectfully.
SURPRISE! EXPRESSING YOUR EMOTIONS HELPS:
- reduce stress and anxiety
- make decision making easier
- improve communication skills
- establish stronger relationships
- bring harmony and well-being to your mental and physical state
NAME AND VALIDATE YOUR EMOTIONS
Putting a name to your emotions and learning how to articulate how you are truly feeling creates emotional awareness. Validate your emotions, instead of making yourself feel bad, wrong or weak for feeling. You are supposed to feel.
RELEASE EMOTIONS IN A HEALTHY WAY
Create a list of healthy ways to move through your emotions. This will help you get clear about strategies that are helpful. Post it somewhere that can serve as a reminder. When you are experiencing uncomfortable emotions, you can easily forget what helps you move through them.
The more you practice emotional awareness the better you become at teaching your child(ren) to do the same. Until next time…
Sara Westbrook is a professional speaker and creator of UPower Inc, offering keynotes, presentations and workshops on ‘Emotions Change Choices’ to audiences ages 4 -100. She can be found at sarawestbrook.com or on Instagram @iamsarawestbrook.
