Do you ever, amid a challenge or challenging time, find yourself… in the kitchen… looking for a snack? Me too. In the days after the hurricane that just ran through my community, Hurricane Ian, the fridge has been less of a food source (because I’m not even hungry) and more of a distraction, a procrastination technique, a door to answers of seemingly insoluble questions. Maybe you’ve experienced disaster, loss, trauma, tragedy – big or small, …
Kyen gripped the edge of the Target shopping cart with his little hands like a prisoner clutches the bars of a jail cell. He rocked his body back and forth as if the rocking would bust him out into freedom. At the same time, Maverick crawled underneath the shopping cart and wedged his body into the bottom shelf where I usually place cases of sparkling water. He dragged his feet like a door-stopper, making the …
Last week I wrote to you about the necessity of developing a healthier relationship to your feelings in order to have emotional intelligence and high performance in your life. In order to do this, we need to understand that all feelings are neutral. They are not good or bad; they just are. They are part of the human experience. Sure, we often label feelings like joy, happiness, love, and gratitude as “good” feelings. And feelings …
A part of self-mastery and having the emotional intelligence that is necessary to effectively lead your team, family, and yourself is feeling your feelings. Why is this so important? Well, because our feelings are messengers. They are a communication vehicle to our inner terrain. They help us do more of what makes us feel good, avoid or establish boundaries around what doesn’t, and understand the relationships in our lives. When We Ignore Our Feelings They …
Expressing our feelings is a key contributor to our (and our children’s) emotional, mental – even physical – health. If we don’t express our feelings, they tend to come out sideways later (sometimes decades later) in the form or resentment, rage, or disease. As one of my former clients said, “As an overachiever, I’d become really effective at suppressing my feelings. When unprocessed and unacknowledged, they would resurface unproductively in my life. One of the …