Lean Into Your Emotions - 123 - A Beautiful Thought

Some emotions stick with us longer than we’d like. Resisting them, we become uncomfortable with their presence. We might deny them, but they persist. How do you deal with such emotions?

One strategy is Viktor Frankl’s concept of paradoxical intention. By attempting to feel the emotion as intensely as possible, we might find that our experience of it is instantly transformed. In some way, the quality of the emotion is the same, but now we can see that it’s not entirely unpleasant. Having felt it, acknowledge it entirely, we might find that it simply leaves.

We also might try observing it, giving it space, and an intellectual eye. Ask little questions about it, such as, where is it in the body? What is its texture – rough, smooth, something else? Is it bright or dark? What colour is it? What flavour is it? By observing it patiently, with affection, we might start to understand what this emotion has brought for us.

Similarly, if we give a little loving space to the emotion, being calm with it and allowing it to be exactly what it is, offering it care and support, as one might give an upset child… We may find that it is quickly pacified, and our self-knowledge increased.

https://beautifulpodcast.com/lean-into-your-emotions-episode-123/