Feel your Feelings

Does that sound like the dumbest thing ever? Feel your feelings??

Doesn’t everyone feel their feelings? Is there really another option? Can I choose to NOT feel some emotions?

The short answer is yes.

When I was really little, like 4 or 5 years old, I had been asked to give a talk in church. It was a short talk, and just in front of the other kids ages 3-12.

This was actually my second talk in church. My first talk was a success! I stood up, talked slowly into the microphone, and sat back down without a hitch.

I was an old pro. I stood up and walked to the front of the room. I looked around at all the other kids, shoved down the anxiety I was feeling, and let out a little giggle.

The kids giggled back.

I giggled more.

The kids giggled more..

I laughed out loud.

The kids laughed. They laughed harder.

Then, I cried.

I sat down.

No talk was given.

So what happened? Well, I was experiencing all kinds of nervousness and anxiety and didn’t know what to do with those big emotions. So I ignored them. Stuffed them down. But emotions don’t stay down—they pop up in unexpected and uncontrollable ways. For me, it was giggling. And then crying.

Can you relate?

Maybe you don’t giggle at odd times, but you eat instead of feeling those emotions. Maybe you scroll for hours on social media instead of feeling all the feels. There’s lots of ways to avoid feeling our emotions.

Learning to feel our feelings takes PRACTICE—like learning to play the piano, or play a sport, or how to paint. Lots of practice.

I still laugh a lot, even 40 years later. But I’m learning to giggle when things are funny, and not so much when I’m uncomfortable.

You can learn this, too.

Let’s go.