How To Observe Your Emotions Without Being Consumed By Them

We've all had those instances when our body is doing its own thing—adjusting to hormones, time zones, climates—and we notice a physiological change and then proceed to create a new story based on these feelings.

For example, maybe you're on your period and the bloating plus a sad movie you watched last night got you thinking about how you will die alone, and suddenly you feel lonely and resentful (oh, have I been there!). Our narratives are powerful, and our narratives are not always a reflection of reality.

Naturally, observing our emotions can sometimes feel overwhelming. Here is a trick I teach my clients: When you feel an especially strong emotion, try to identify one or two other emotions that are also present, the more the better.

Although it may seem counterintuitive to try to feel more when you are overwhelmed, identifying multiple emotions can actually dilute the power of the consuming emotion. It will also offer a more realistic representation of what you are feeling. You may be overwhelmed, but you may also be sad, disappointed, and angry. You may feel frustrated, isolated, or simply hungry (as is often the case with me!). When trying to address our needs, we are more likely to do it well when we can specifically identify what those needs are.

In this practice, we will often find that we are experiencing contradictory emotions. But if we feel a strong emotion, most of us usually won't allow ourselves to feel something else that's seemingly contradictory. We struggle to hold both. A common combination, for example, is sadness and relief, yet we often ignore the relief because we don't know how to make sense of these two feelings together. So we overcommit to sadness.

Remember this: How we feel represents our subjective reality, and not always the facts. Just because you may feel rejected doesn't mean someone is rejecting you. Just because you feel insecure doesn't mean you don't have the skill to do something. Just because you are sad, it doesn't mean there is objectively a loss.

This doesn't invalidate your feelings, but it does place a limitation on them. They represent your reality, your triggers, your wounds, your hormone or fatigue levels, and so much more. This doesn't mean we should dismiss feelings; it simply means they are limited in presenting the whole, or even accurate, picture at all times. More precisely, feelings represent how we experience the picture.