Today’s Mandala
Emotions
“Your intellect may be confused,
but your emotions will never lie to you.“
— Roger Ebert
“Feelings are much like waves,
we can’t stop them from coming
but we can choose which one to surf.”
— Jonatan Martensson
“We cannot selectively numb emotions,
when we numb the painful emotions,
we also numb the positive emotions.”
— Brené Brown
Today’s MotD encourages us to tune in to and acknowledge our emotions, all of them. They provide valuable information and insight if we’re willing to take the time to be present with them. Unfortunately our society tends to only embrace the “positive” ones and discourage the ”negative” ones.
For me, I grew up in environment of hearing ”stop crying or I’ll give you reason to cry”. Being angry was forbidden for us kids, although we witnessed plenty of it from grown-ups. It’s taken my years of therapy to be okay with my anger because I knew something was needing to come to the surface to be addressed and/or healed.
Acknowledging and naming our emotions gives us clues as to what’s feels okay and what may need some attention. This emotion wheel (as found on the Junto Institute web site) can be a great place to start. The good news is that while the wheel list 96 emotions, at its core we only have six basic ones; from there it’s just a matter of whittling it down to specifics. For instance if we are feeling fear, does it feel more like horror/terror or scared/nervous/insecure. If the feeling is “nervous”, is it more like being anxious or worried. From here it becomes easier to pinpoint from where the anxiousness, for instance, is coming.
The Brené Brown’s quote about the numbing of our emotions made me realize the importance of honoring them all.
PLEASE NOTE: If anyone is struggling with their emotions, that they have become too overwhelming to handle or manage, please seek professional help. Years ago I resisted at first; and now I am so grateful that I allowed myself to ask for help…it literally saved my life.
Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
btw…started with this…
Mandala of the Day 