I've found Mindful Self Compassion and the practice of Focusing both incredibly radical and compassionate way to turn towards my feelings in a loving way and allow them to be. All the adults in my life when I was a kid, I now realised, were totally uncomfortable with/terrified of their own emotions and therefore of mine. So I tried to keep them suppressed. I found this totally impossible as a highly sensitive person who feels emotions very intensely - so I thought there was something deeply wrong with me. This led me to drink to try desperately to escape my emotions.
Then, gradually, gently, through the journey to sobriety and beyond I've learned that our feelings just want to be heard. And when we turn towards them with love it allows them to move and change and fade. I'm so grateful to now have this wisdom!
I so connect with this and thanks so much for sharing. I remember being so afraid to feel, always hiding. It's a beautiful thing when we can bring our feelings out into the open, into the light--and to realize that we aren't alone in them.
I am in need of some emotional sobriety defragging. I just ordered Jennie’s book on Audible and can’t wait to listen. Thanks Caroline 💚
I read an early copy and oh my goodness! It is SO good.
I've found Mindful Self Compassion and the practice of Focusing both incredibly radical and compassionate way to turn towards my feelings in a loving way and allow them to be. All the adults in my life when I was a kid, I now realised, were totally uncomfortable with/terrified of their own emotions and therefore of mine. So I tried to keep them suppressed. I found this totally impossible as a highly sensitive person who feels emotions very intensely - so I thought there was something deeply wrong with me. This led me to drink to try desperately to escape my emotions.
Then, gradually, gently, through the journey to sobriety and beyond I've learned that our feelings just want to be heard. And when we turn towards them with love it allows them to move and change and fade. I'm so grateful to now have this wisdom!
I so connect with this and thanks so much for sharing. I remember being so afraid to feel, always hiding. It's a beautiful thing when we can bring our feelings out into the open, into the light--and to realize that we aren't alone in them.