Processing Emotion

One of my rocks for my seasonal goal is to bring focus to processing my emotions, rather than buffering or jumping straight to thought work. However I’ve hit a snag in that I realise I don’t think I know practically how to process my emotions. I’ve been trying to spend some time after experiencing emotions that I would have previously classified as “negative” (though I now know that emotions themselves are inherently neutral) but this can sometimes lead to the opposite of buffering – rumination and getting lost in them. I’ve looked through the call replays searching for this term but still feel a bit lost. What should I be doing to process emotions, for how long, with who and how? Any advice much appreciated, many thanks coaches.

 

 

Answer:

In the bonus section there is a video called Doing Less. Around minute 50 Maisie shares how to do 90 seconds of discomfort. Check it out and see if it helps.

There really is no right way to process emotions. Notice how your brain thinks you’re doing it wrong. What if ruminating and getting lost in your emotions is exactly what you’re supposed to be doing right now? Being a human feeling emotions is a lifelong practice. You’re trying a new way of being a human feeling emotions and it’s normal to feel a little awkward. It’s normal for it to seem to last longer than you had hoped it would. This doesn’t mean anything, except you’re doing it! If it’s a lifelong practice, there’s no rush.

C: processing emotions

T: this is the part where I ruminate and get lost in negative emotions

F: how do you want to feel?

A: what do you want to do or not do?

R: What result are you looking for?

We often want the quick fix to these pesky negative emotions, but the real power comes from leaning into the process. In your model, it seems like the goal is to get rid of the uncomfortable emotions. I would offer this to you, see how it lands and play with this model a bit.

R: I allow myself to explore feeling all my emotions.