Page 32 - Mindfulness Meets Emotional Awareness Sample Book
P. 32
If we lack understanding of our individual emotions — and as
a consequence, become fearful of feeling a particular emotion
— then in doing so we are inadvertently generating a
secondary package of emotion on top of an already
challenging experience.
If we ‘feel bad - about feeling bad’ then we have just
doubled the emotional load!
If we become ‘anxious - about feeling anxiety’ then we have
just doubled the emotional load!
If we become ‘angry and frustrated - because we are feeling
angry and frustrated’ then we have just doubled the
emotional load!
This is such a common experience, and is incredibly unhelpful
for us. The last thing we need at times of emotional difficulty
is to make ourselves feel even worse!
A very good starting point to tackle this kind of response is to
extend our emotional language in a way that will help us to
re-frame the way in which we perceive our emotions.
Emotions are frequently talked about in a very black and
white kind of language. I often hear them described as either
good or bad, positive or negative.
We feel good today or we feel bad today. We feel positive or
we feel negative. Our mood is high or low. We’re up or
we’re down.
To my mind this is far too limiting and restricting as it doesn’t
allow us to recognize our individual emotions at all and it
certainly doesn’t do justice to the range of emotions that we
have, or indeed acknowledge the importance of all of them.
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Mindfulness Meets Emotional Awareness
©Jenny Florence/Burgess A-Z of Emotional Health Ltd 2016 All rights reserved.
