It’s the start of yet another week – are you feeling inspired? Empowered? Distracted? Overwhelmed? Mixture of all?
It’s ok. I get it. There’s a lot going on.
Besides, most of the time we’re feeling a cocktail of both comfortable and uncomfortable feelings, anyway.
It’s just that many of us were not encouraged, much less taught, to honor all of our feelings. Instead, we do basically anything to avoid the uncomfortable ones. And it’s not healthy.
We now know from research, that while feelings in of themselves cannot hurt us, suppressing them can, laying the ground for physical and mental illness.
In my teens, I got a poem in a birthday card that said something like “those who fear the cold will never feel the heat”. That has stuck with me for decades.
The truth is that we can’t select which emotions to suppress without suppressing them all on some level. The depth of feelings disappear and we can’t really tell the difference anymore.
Only in my adulthood did I learn to honor all my feelings and to utilize them to inform and make decisions that amplify happiness and wellbeing – of myself and others. It has been a life changing skill to learn and the benefits are manifold.
Deeper self awareness and acceptance, meaningful relationships, more energy, resourcefulness, confidence, increased innovation.
My performance levels are sustainably higher and it’s much easier to bounce back after setbacks. It has transformed my life both personally and professionally.
If you wish to know what else helped me on this journey, click here to download the 5 Simple Ways to Practice Happiness and start using them in your life, too!
Until then, keep breathing.
Much love,
Paula
xx
