This week I’m challenging myself (and my client’s) to sit with the discomfort we almost always try and avoid with difficult feelings.
For me it’s sadness. I’m well practised at not allowing myself to be sad. Shake it off, move it out of the body, be with friends, do whatever it takes not to feel it. For others it may be feelings of loss, shame or regret.
What happens when we sit with it? Become intimate with it? Feel it in our body? Eventually we learn to tolerate these feelings and accept that it is human to feel a plethora of emotions and a natural part of our existence.
The more we fight, numb and avoid the discomfort of difficult feelings the bigger and worse the discomfort gets.
Compassion and kindness towards ourselves in these moments can help. Sharing our fears with others and supporting each other to practise tolerating discomfort is a step. Learning to manage these feelings with the help of a therapist is also a pathway if it feels too big to tackle alone.
Sitting with our emotions means simply allowing them to exist and resisting the urge to get rid of them or judging ourselves for even having them. It can be a difficult skill to learn but could you give yourself the space to try?
Kareena. x
Kareena Hodgson was a full-time professional international circus performer for 20 years, who is now an accredited Counsellor/life coach and The Manifesto is her professional consultancy. She is uniquely suited to working in the mental health space within the performing arts. She is also the Senior Editor, Executive Coach & Moral Backbone of Carnival Cinema.
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