Meaning From Feeling

Meaning From Feeling

Many of us resist feeling our emotions, opting instead to numb ourselves to our physical sensations because they feel uncomfortable. We may even create additional suffering for ourselves by telling ourselves that our sensations are unbearable or harmful.

When we begin the process of “healing by feeling” we often revert right back to our numbing and other methods of avoidance because we equate certain sensations with certain emotions, and we deem those emotions to be “bad.”

Interestingly, scientists have found that certain bodily sensations and responses are very similar between so-called “good” and “bad” emotions. For example, fear and anxiety produce physiologically similar bodily sensations – a strongly beating heart, for example – as excitement and anticipation do. With this knowledge, we can start reframing the stories we tell ourselves about feeling afraid and worried about something to feeling eager and enthusiastic about that same thing.

This type of reframe has been shown to be doubly powerful when said out loud, and more powerful still if we address ourselves by name while doing so. We way need to push past the initial awkwardness of doing this, but when we do so, we can create a sense of grounded objectivity and become our own self-coaches and self-leaders.

I allow myself to feel by body sensations fully and speak affirming and empowering interpretations of what my feelings mean.