“What are your feelings about feelings? Does your attitude aid or hinder you in daily life?”
Laura Lewis-Barr, “How do you feel about feelings?”
In responding to Laura’s post over at Six Seconds: The Emotional Intelligence Network, I wrote the following:
I feel that my feelings are the closest connection I have to who I really am. It is when I allow them to be, and at times delve into them, that I can see what my deep beliefs are about the world and my place in it. When I follow my feelings, I find the network of thoughts that hold them together — and I have more choices in what exactly I want to believe about the world and my place in it.It’s unfortunate that so many today are still afraid of getting “stuck” in their feelings. When you really feel them and listen to their message, they never hold you hostage — they mobilize you.
The more that I learn from my feelings, the more that I have to learn.
When I learned to stop fighting my feelings, stop trying to ward off the unpleasant ones, and stop cutting short the spontaneous ones, I realized they weren’t so unpleasant or unmanageable after all.
Yes, they can be painful, excruciatingly painful, but they do bear a message. And sometimes the more painful they are, the more pressing their message is — the more meaningful they are to not only your existence or survival, but to your spiritual livelihood. Sometimes the more painful they are, the more rewarding they can be.
Laura asks an important question.
How is your relationship with your emotional self?
You may avoid it or embrace it, despise it or cherish it. And what you choose to do will have consequences — not only to your emotional self, but to your life, your health, and your happiness.
Join the discussion at Six Seconds and see if you might learn a thing or two about how you relate to your feelings, and why that might be.
