Last week I talked about avoiding a panic attack when one was threatening.
It can be very tempting to spend energy trying to stuff down that emotion, to pretend it doesn’t exist. That can work…for a little bit, but it’s incredibly hard. It’s like trying to hold a beach ball underwater…you can do it, but the minute you let up, that beach ball comes right back to the surface.
If you can't stuff that emotion down, should you just let it out? Any of you who’ve done that can tell us how well that works.
Last week I talked about avoiding a panic attack when one was threatening.
If you can’t ignore it and you can't express it fully, what can you do?
Name it to tame it! What is the emotion you’re feeling, exactly? Label it. My favourite way of saying this (even if to myself) is, I’m noticing I’m feeling angry/worried/fearful right now.
The magic is that once you give the emotion a name, you’re acknowledging it and letting it come in, sit down and feel welcome. Now that it doesn’t need to fight to be seen, it loses some of its steam. You’ve tamed it.
I know this sounds overly simplistic or perhaps even magical, but it works.
Try this ONE thing
Next time an emotion threatens to take you over, take a moment to name it. What exactly are you feeling? This mere act allows you to tame that emotion.
From this calmer perspective, you avoid reacting and can now figure out how you want to respond.
Hey! Are you already successful and accomplished? Do you have many things to appreciate about your life right now? Are you always open to learning more and growing yourself?
Despite all your successes, do you sometimes doubt yourself? Do you hesitate to go after what you really want in life?
Or maybe you dismiss your past successes, putting them down to luck, and don’t really see how extraordinary you really are?
If this sounds like you, you and I should have a conversation. Drop me a line here, karen.laidlaw.theONEthing@outlook.com, and let’s talk!
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