Feelings, Feelings, Feelings!

Feelings, feelings, feelings!

Sometimes when I’m overwhelmed with emotions, I actually don’t feel anything at all.

Shutting down and numbing out is a defense mechanism that has been protecting me my whole life.

This is often why people do things to “feel alive”. But the numbness is usually a result of OVERWHELM by ALL the feelings.

It’s a double edge sword really.

Do I feel all the feelings and risk not being able to handle them?

Or do I shut them all off and then feel nothing, not even the good?

Well, it’s usually not a conscious thought, it’s usually a subconscious reaction based on your childhood environment and how safe it was to feel feelings when you were younger.

Often we get overwhelmed because we can’t name the feelings and we spend all our energy trying to figure it out.

Tools, like the feeling chart made by my friend @avanmuijen help us to start identify basic feelings. By doing this, we can see how much more there is too feel than the basic Mad, Sad, Glad that we’re all used to.

When we name it, we can tame it.