Want to Heal? You've Got to Feel | How to Heal Part Two

It’s part two of my How to Heal series, and today is all about feelings.

Last time we talked about honoring your inner child, and this time we’re talking feelings!

Emotions are incredibly complicated, and I think we’re often told that feelings either should have no control at all over our lives and our decisions, or we should be totally overrun by our emotions.

There is no in between! It’s like you can either be a disconnected, grumpy old man or a toddler mid tantrum.

But the truth is, feelings are both incredibly valid and completely temporary.

Feelings aren’t truth. They don’t define us, and they don’t last forever. But if we refuse to acknowledge our feelings, then we can’t move through them and we get stuck in them.

Because feelings happen inside of us, we carry them with us unless we can access some way to let them go.

What does it look like to experience a feeling and move through it?

  • Moving your body

  • Having a good cry

  • Honoring your intuition when your feelings are trying to reveal truth about your reality

  • Going to therapy

  • Calling a friend

  • Showering, eating, and putting on real clothes

If you want to heal, you need to feel. When you ignore your feelings, you effectively clog all the flow in your life. If you avoid the painful feelings, you’ll also grow desensitized to joy, excitement, and intuition.

To find healing, start by…

  1. Naming your feelings (“I feel _________.”)

  2. Expressing your feelings (Talking to a friend, a therapist, or journaling.")

  3. Surrendering your feelings (Decide whether you want your life to change at all in response to what you’re feeling. If yes, make the change. If not, move on).

  4. Repeat.

Little bonus note here— no one is responsible for your healing except for you. That being said, connecting with a trained therapist is an incredible tool to access your power to find healing for yourself. It’s like educating you about you, and it’s invaluable.

Find all of the How to Heal series blog posts here.