Tackling Tough Emotions

Emotions are intense, plain and simple. It’s how we display the emotions is what is important at the end of the day. To be honest, I have not learned how to feel my emotions and display them like an adult. Sometimes, more than I would like to admit, my emotions get the best of me and it can be a whirlwind for everyone around me. Sure, emotions can be good of course! Those are not the emotions that I’m referring to. I’m talking the anger, the resentment, the shame, the guilt, the hard emotions we all know and feel at some points in life. It’s normal to feel these, It’s human nature! I understand these emotions are part of our design but it doesn’t hurt to improve the way we channel them.

Going into the new year, it might be cliché’ to say it is something I want to work on but really it has nothing to do with the new year. It has to do with who I want to be and need to be to really grow and develop into the mom my little needs. The mind has always been an intriguing puzzle piece in health. The mind is what feeds the soul. I want to feed my soul positivity. I believe it is important for myself to learn how to feel everything for what it is but let go of the negative emotions that come from situations out of my control.

I am unsure what has caused this large void in myself in recognizing and feeling emotions to their fullest and really processing them and letting them go. Maybe its my inability to truly live in the present. Perhaps its my fear of letting other people truly inside my feelings and being vulnerable. Whatever it may be, I really want to get a handle on it and learn healthy expression. I have found through physical activity and exercise I have an outlet to get out certain feelings that I am unsure how to express. I continue to work on this journey daily but here are some tips that I have been trying.

• Physical Activity daily – going for a walk, working out, swimming, honestly anything that gets your heart rate up.
• Journaling – writing how you feel in the moment helps you process the emotion and understand its reason for appearing.
• Drinking a large glass of water- it helps you focus on something else in the moment of frustration or anxiety and levels you back out.
• Walking away from an argument ( UNTIL YOU COOL DOWN ) Never leave an argument without closure, but definitely de-escalate.
• Partaking in hobbies that make you feel whole, my favorite go to is cooking. When I am cooking my mind is elsewhere while my body is regulating and afterwords I am able to process why I felt a certain emotion.
• BREATHING! Best technique, which I hope to show Griff, Taking a few super deep breaths through your nose and expelling them out of your mouth until you feel you have no air left to expel, Try it for a good minute. Regroup and discuss what you felt, was it anger? Fear? Sadness? What emotions made you feel the way you do.

Most time my overwhelming emotions lead me to a place where I yell and say words that I regret. My sad emotions make me shutdown. The techniques above are ways that I found work for me throughout varying situations. I am hoping to continue to grow and work on showing grace and compassion in moments of my own weakness. Don’t feel bad though when you lose your temper or have a bad emotion displayed in front of your littles. As long as we can recognize the way we expressed ourselves was not necessarily the best and we can apologize for how we acted, that alone is a wonderful teaching moment. We are Human nonetheless.