As sentient beings, we are filled with emotions and feelings. You might feel physically tired, awake, hungry, full, thirsty, weak, strong, etc. If you’re tired you sleep and feel rested when you wake up. If you feel hungry you eat and you no longer feel hungry. In general, we’re able to distinguish between a physical need and an emotional one.
We experience emotions uniquely
Emotions seem to generally feel the same to everyone. However, though two people can experience emotions similarly, they’re felt uniquely by each person. Moreover, though we may have similar ways of dealing with emotions, the inner dialogue that takes place together with the person’s genetic makeup and life experience make them unique as well.
In short, everyone experiences emotions in a very personal way and everyone has a way or a habit of how to deal with emotions. Yet, many people share the mechanism of sulking into a feeling and staying with it. Holding on to a feeling might be helpful if you’re mindfully experiencing an emotion that you would like to better understand and release. However, it’s unhealthy if you hold on to an emotion that you cannot let go of. In many instances, it can keep you in a sad, depressed, or dark place where your daily life suffers and your relationships might too. It can also stunt your path toward inner growth.
Therefore, we can say that holding on to emotions is not very healthy unless it’s mindfully and purposely done to achieve a goal. The difference between holding on to a feeling and choosing to experience them mindfully is the processing of those emotions and the outcome of the full experience.
Choosing to allow myself to experience an emotion mindfully
When I choose to allow myself to experience an emotion mindfully, I can choose one of the following options:
Option 1: I can choose to acknowledge the emotion without judging what I feel and consciously allow it to stay with me for a moment or a while, after which I’ll release it.
Option 2: I can also experience the emotion and choose to discern it in order to find a healthy inner dialogue that will enable me to place that emotion in a healthy place in my emotional life.
Sometimes, pursuing the second option allows us to grow through dealing with an emotion where if you experience it again, you’ll have a better understanding of what you’re experiencing, you’ll probably have set expectations on the inner dialogue you’ll have to allow you to release the emotion while continuing to grow within.
Sometimes, we’re in so much pain that it’s not easy to let go of a feeling and the inner dialogue that stabs that feeling deeper within. However, now that you are aware of the options you have every time you experience strong emotions, you can consciously choose how to better deal with those emotions so that you can create or build a better quality of inner life for yourself.
With much love,
Alicia
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