519: How to Process Negative Emotions Without Getting Stuck
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Episode Summary
In this episode, I’m talking about one of the questions I hear all the time: What do we do with negative emotions?
So many of us have been taught to push away, numb, judge, or “get rid of” emotions like anger, grief, sadness, fear, rage, and frustration. But the truth is, emotions are not bad. They are part of being human, and they are meant to move through us.
I talk about why we develop resistance to certain emotions, especially when we grew up receiving messages that our feelings were too much, wrong, annoying, or unsafe. When we are not taught how to process emotions, we often reach for ways to numb out, distract, avoid, or blame others for what we are feeling.
Key Takeaways
Emotions are part of being human, and we are meant to feel a full range of them
Many of us learned to block, judge, or numb our emotions because of messages we received growing up
“Negative emotions” are not bad. They are simply emotions on the fear end of the emotional spectrum
Fear can protect us, anger can help us access power, and sadness can give us important information about our inner world
Emotions are energy, and when we allow them to move through the body, they can shift and transform
The 90-second rule reminds us that intense emotions can move through us quickly when we do not block them or attach a story to them
Journaling helps us witness our inner world, process emotions, and gain clarity
Processing Negative Emotions
The way through difficult emotions is not to avoid them, numb them, or blame someone else for them. The way through is to feel them.
When an emotion comes up, you may know exactly what you are feeling, such as anger, grief, sadness, rage, or frustration. Other times, you may only notice a physical sensation, like a knot in your stomach, tightness in your chest, a closing in your heart, or resistance in the body. These sensations are often signals that something emotional is asking for your attention.
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359: Why and How to Feel Your Emotions
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494: Shift From Victim to Empowered with One Simple Question
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