Tune in Tuesday: Feelings
How is your heart? Let’s check in on you!
But really how do you feel? Love that shirt that I bought from Whole Foods. Because so many times I catch myself asking someone, “How are you?” and without hesitation in auto pilot, hearing “I am good and you?”
We can easily answer without realizing we aren’t being true to ourselves because we are conditioned. Why would anyone want to know how we really feel, especially if it’s a negative feeling?
Well I am here to tell you, there is no negative feelings, it’s the thought about the feeling that is negative. And guess who has control over that thought? We do! And no I didn’t make that up, I am just reiterating it as a reminder to myself also actually. I want to be held accountable for every time I say to my husband or my friend you made me feel that way. Honestly I am tired of saying that. I want to take ownership of how I feel and also cultivate acceptance that my feelings are just that my feelings. And sure outside sources can create a thought which then turns into how I feel about it, but I can’t just blame outside sources/ people/ situations. Perhaps you want to make that shift too?
I feel excited, I feel sad, I feel happy, I feel nervous, I feel tired, I feel… this is a great practice to journal about or share with a loved one. For parents, what a great question to ask your child in the morning, or before they go to sleep, or if they are laughing or crying, and then the follow up question, when you feel that way do you feel it in a certain part of your body?(head, heart, chest, stomach, etc) and then the action. Name the feeling. Name the sensation. Name the body part, take a deep breath hold it at the top for a few seconds, and release. Let it out. Let it go. And take as many breaths as needed to slowly watch that feeling float away on a cloud. Perhaps and most likely to return again maybe that day, maybe later in the week or maybe much later in your lifetime.
The feelings are real and as humans it is what makes us REAL. All animals/ plants too have feelings. And they can be perceived as scary but they can also be so beautiful.
I would love to hear from you what feelings you are having today? This week? This month? This year? This lifetime?
The feelings you have around your job, your home, your family, your friends, your community. And I’d like to remind you, that those feelings like everything are temporary and they aren’t facts. And if and how and when you can, focus on the feelings that make you smile, grow from the feelings that make you cry, evolve from the feelings that make you angry, and let go of the feelings that no longer serve you.
Tips, tools, + techniques to check in on feelings:
-create a feelings journal
-ask a loved one to be your feelings accountability partner
-name the feeling, notice the physical sensation connected to it
-And breathe
