THE GUIDE

3. EMOTIONS

MAIN ESSAY

Emotions: Peaks & Valleys

RIPPLE EFFECT

Playing with Light & Shadows

HEALTHY M.O.

How to Work with Your Emotions

THE PROCESS

Stress and Self-Regulation

SHIFT GEARS

Emotional Mastery

It can be said that we live in a rather emotionally handicapped world. While we’ve adapted to accommodate many of our physical and mental limitations, we’re still a bit in the dark about our emotions.

Perhaps it's because many of us have not been taught how to regulate and process our emotional signals very well, and so we may become confused, uncomfortable or even threatened when faced with our own feelings and those of others.

All too often, we distance, distract, or numb ourselves from our internal reality and have socially sanctioned frameworks for fleeing our discomfort instead of paying attention to the cues.

Our society is no stranger to addiction and many of us use a version of this maladapted coping mechanism at some point or other. Our addiction of choice may be food, drugs, tobacco, alcohol, exercise, hoarding, cutting, workaholism, tv, shopping, gambling, video games, social media, porn, sex, power, codependent relationships….

We may even be addicted to a specific ‘cover’ emotion as an automatic response when under stress, going into anger, anxiety, depression, or denial, so as to keep from feeling a more 'off-limits' emotion (shame, rage, helplessness....)

3. EMOTIONS ~ The Peaks & Valleys

Essay by Katarzyna Vedah. May 5, 2018

Or we may subconsciously be addicted to suffering after growing up around people who were threatened by our well-being in some way. In an attempt to divert the possibility of future disconnection, disapproval, or oncoming disaster, we end up sabotaging our own sense of happiness.

If we found ourselves in survival situations that left us helpless to defend ourselves or to escape, temporarily suppressing our emotional capacity by numbing out or dissociating could have saved us. But it was never meant to be a long-term coping mechanism.

If we suppress our precious bio-chemical guidance and information system that we call Emotion over the long-term, we can quite literally jeopardize our own lives. As babies, if our cries go unheard or are ignored for too long, we may stop calling out. But just because we’re not screaming, doesn’t mean we’re not in pain.

When we don’t hear or listen to our emotions (our own inner cries), the energy doesn’t just disappear or get swept under some psychic carpet. We may deny our inner conflict, our fear, or anger, and become numb to the pain, but often at the expense of feeling much of anything else.

Eventually, we may find that this suppressed energy comes out anyway, usually in unconscious or destructive ways, and can manifest through our bodies as physical pain and illness.

As creative humans, let’s reclaim our emotional reality and feeling-states and live more fully as we learn to express ourselves in more conscious and life-affirming ways.

VIDEO (YouTube): School of Life

Being Out of Touch

Emotional Intelligence

Can We Grow Emotionally?

How to Cope With Depression

VIDEO (YouTube): TED

Stop Sabotaging Yourself - D. Silber

Feel What You Feel - A. Watkins

Feelings: Handle Them - M. Saligar

Emotional Courage – S. David

VIDEO (YouTube):

Bipolar Disorder (Crash Course)