How do you deal with your emotions/feelings?

Often times just sharing how you feel with others makes a big difference. I find that telling people here on this app how I am feeling sort of releases some of that negativity. I also have made a gratitude list in which I have written down all the positive things about my life and I refer to it whenever I am feeling down or am unhappy with how things are going.

For me I’m always curious about my feelings, where is it from, why I had it, and I don’t judge them. I let myself feel whatever it is feeling. In a way, it makes me love myself more. Because I don’t shame myself for feeling things, just accept it like how it is. It’s okay to feel good, to feel bad, to feel happy, to feel sad.

For me the first step in managing feelings is by identifying them. I downloaded Emotional Wheel and I always try to identify what am I feeling. By identifying them, I can sort of understand where is it coming from and why I had that feeling.

Usually I will journal them out. Sometimes I tried making sense out of it. Sometimes I just let it be. I grew up in an emotionally unavailable family so it took so long for me to realize that I have feelings lmao

At first it was freaking chaotic. Now I love feeling things. I believe there’s no good feeling or bad feelings. Just comfortable and uncomfortable ones. Sitting with my negative emotions are very uncomfortable, but it makes me feel powerful in a way, I’m not affected by my feelings, not reacted out of emotions, just letting it pass through me. Like I made peace with them. And then they will subside. Feelings are temporary. We don’t really have to react or respond to it. Feelings bring message to us. Be curious with what it tries to tell us. Just let them come and go with no judgement :)

I joined the mindfulness group here and learned how to be mindful of many things relating to emotions and use the mindfulness tools always available to us, free, at any time, anywhere :)

Some of my biggest lessons learned in that group:

-it's ok to have negative thoughts/emotions

- everything comes and goes, thoughts/emotions change

- notice when they start, when they end, and let them go

- we are not our thoughts/emotions, we are the witness of them

- whenever I notice a negative thought/emotion coming on, I acknowledge it, lean into it instead of avoiding it or trying to push it away, say hello, greet it, become friends with it (hello anger!), seek to understand it. let it be ok that it's here for a while

- allowing things to be and accepting is the first part. consciously focusing my mind on what I want i the next part. where am I focusing my mind?

Hope to see you in the group meetings/chats Mondays or Thursdays! They're fun :)

@vikafly

I feel that way often, and I like journaling down my thoughts and feelings. It allows me to look at them from a different perspective, and note them down in a tangible way. You can also reach out to a listener if you would like to share your feelings with someone 1-1. Our listeners here are ready to support you any way they can, and validate your feelings in such a unique way. I hope that this helps! 💜

I think we’re all full of feelings, we just aren’t always aware, or we distract ourselves. Some people naturally struggle to identify their feelings, for some it can definitely be improved with practice. It usually helps to start by identifying the sensations in your body. Are your muscles tense, do you feel a knot in your throat, is your breathing tense and shallow or deep and relaxed? From there it’s kind of like being a detective, learning to link what you feel to what has recently happened. It could help to Google a list of common feelings, I’m sure those exist.

Sharing with others can be a good way to practice and get feedback on what you are feeling. So can journaling. You don’t need to share or vent every feeling. Think of it more as a pressure valve, you don’t need to empty out everything. Just make sure they don’t build up too much over time without any release :)

As for freeing your body of emotions, one way is to fully feel them. We often fear doing so because we think it will never end. But we have feelings for a reason, they’re meant to help us find our way. Also it’s said that if you allow feelings to naturally arise, they will usually peak and start to fade within a few minutes. For me, I know that resisting a feeling like sadness or anger just makes me feel worse in the long run, and can lead to anxiety. Just knowing that’s it’s safe to feel can in itself be reassuring.

moving your body can help get out stuck feelings too :) shaking your limbs, punching the air (not too hard, don’t hurt yourself), stretching stiff muscles. Also, breathing exercises where you pay attention to your breath without trying to control it too much.

@vikafly

I've found journaling and prayer to be helpful for me. I've come to the point that therapists look and me and ask why I'm in their office. It's taken 2 years of investing heavily in myself to get to this point. While therapy was part of it, I did a lot of work on my own. I hope you can find a way to transform your negative thoughts/feelings/emotions into positive ones.

@vikafly a lot of great ideas here. Hope some of them help.

Here is the mindfulness video library

https://www.7cups.com/forum/MindfulnessSupportCommunity_106/ResourceLibrary_1062/

Here is the schedule of mindfulness discussions

Hope you find the support you are looking for.

@vikafly

Negative feelings can certainly be hard to manage. And understandably, we come across more of them in our leisure.

Identifying our feelings/emotions are said to be the first step towards managing them. So, maybe this leisure was a blessing in disguise for many.

The next step is to accept it. It's only human to feel. The feelings and emotions do not come up for no reason. And only when we fully accept it, we can see clearly where they came from.

And when we know what caused it, more than half the battle is won.

I have found that journaling with pencil and paper helps me accomplish all these above steps. I hope this or some technique helps you out too.

Tc. You got this 🧡

Drawing before bed actually does wonders for me. I don’t spend as much fine writing and since it’s just for me there’s no pressure to make the drawing good. Sometimes it’s just simple stuff, sometimes not. I do write words too.

@vikafly

I try to focus on my emotions and study what is it trying to tell me. i think of it as messages.