Identifying what you’re feeling is super important.
When you understand what you’re feeling, it’s easier to figure out why you’re experiencing that emotion.
This Emotions Wheel helps to do that so take a screenshot
Then you can make several decisions:
To accept
To avoid it
To suppress it
To deal with it
All those decisions are not bad because there’s a time and place for all of them.
Sometimes we have to suppress our nerves to sit the exam we have in 3rd period because if you didn’t, you’d try and bunk the lesson and that would get you into trouble.
But the best and most important decision we can do is to accept how we are feeling.
Your feelings are ultimately always valid. Even if they aren’t based on the truth or are negative ones. They are valid because they are true to you and how you & your mind chooses to react. No one has a right to invalidate your feelings.
Accepting doesn’t mean we like that emotion or are entertaining it but accepting allows us to deal with it properly. You can’t get over an issue without first identifying it and realising it’s an issue.
How to deal with emotions can be a little harder because we’re humans. Complicated and never alone so our actions cause chain reactions.
Ask yourself these questions:
What do I ultimately want in this moment?
Should I act on this emotion?
If I do what I feel, will it help or hinder what I want?
Would it be better/easier if I dealt with this emotion with someone else?
Realistically, those questions will not just flow from your mind when faced with difficult emotions but take a moment to think about them now, with how you’re currently feeling.
Feelings are fleeting. They do always pass even if they are super strong. A lot of the time, the emotions we struggle with just need to be accepted & acknowledged and allowed to pass intentionally with time.
And if you ever make the wrong decisions based on something you felt, forgive yourself. You’re human and we all have made mistakes like that. If there’s no fixing whatever you have done, know that the lesson you’ve learned has fixed the potential of the problem occurring again. And that’s enough.
If you have any questions or need more advice about things you're feeling then message us on the web chat Wednesdays 4-6PM or DM us on Instagram.
