Do you ever feel your emotions are consuming you or affecting your quality of life?
Do you sometimes wish you could remove all the thoughts from your head, give them a nice washing, and then put the nice squeaky-clean thoughts back in?
Maybe it’s your thoughts and memories of your past that prevent you from moving forward or perhaps you feel overwhelmed, indecisive or foggy headed about certain things.
If you thought YES to the above, you may need an emotional detox.
Just like a detox for the physical body, sometimes we need a little extra focus on removing impurities in the mind. Thoughts create emotion and if not understood, accepted or processed effectively can leave us feeling isolated, debilitated, confused or like something is wrong with us. The thing is, emotions make us HUMAN. They are our BIGGEST drivers in life and without them, we can’t act, grow, evolve or appreciate the beauty of life.
Here are the dos and don’ts about emotional detoxing
DO –
1. Listen to your emotions.
Your emotions are your body’s messengers to tell you if something needs attention or healing. Emotions, when heard allow us to act and make decisions that are BEST for us in the moment, whilst encouraging us to work through what is holding us back.
2. Accept and honour your emotions.
Sometimes an emotion such as fear will show up. If you were hurt in the past – say from a breakup, fear is to be expected in a new relationship. Accepting the fear or even thanking it for being there to protect you is enough to honour it…. And just like they say, “feel the fear and do it anyway!”.
3. Release/ let go of the emotions they no longer serve you.
Emotions are temporary. Understand that they’re forms of energy constantly moving throughout your body. If your emotions however, are beginning to control you or affect your quality of life – look into some practices that may support you. Meditation, exercise, breathing techniques or seeing a Kinesiologist can help you to let go. Remember – we ALL need help sometimes.
DON’T –
1. Don’t judge your emotions.
This is the most self-critical and most unloving thing you can do. Judging your emotions is like saying, you are not important, or I don’t care about what you have to say or feel. Respect yourself and let your emotions come and go as they please.
2. Over analyse your emotions.
When we overanalyse our emotions, we can draw more attention and feed the emotions that are causing our suffering. Sometimes taking a break, focusing on something else that gives us joy, allows the body to settle without our minds intervening or creating that extra pressure.
3. Suppress your emotions.
Suppression turns into depression. Depressed people may feel numb because there is so much emotion that the body tries to protect itself by separating the person from feeling all together. As painful as it can be to feel your emotions, it can cause much greater suffering to not feel at all.
If you are like me, an “emotional person”, you probably despise that part of you. I used to too and it didn’t get me very far. You can learn to love your emotions and you can also feel empowered by them. If you’re not sure how to do that, or if you do need support in the emotional department, please reach out.
I am here for you.
Courtney x
