Understand and then accept your emotions right now

This article is a place marker for a progression of thoughts as they come.

First and foremost, in this day of anxiety, we have the role and opportunity to listen to ourselves, to understand what we’re feeling, as a means of accepting the emotions that are being stirred up, simply because of all that’s happening.

When our world is changing by the day, and our leaders are communicating caution in ways we’ve never really heard before, our common experience — whether we acknowledge it or not — is to begin to panic.

“What if I’m not ready... what if my vulnerable relative or I get sick... what now, having lost my job yesterday... where in the hell is this going?”

All these questions and more flood our minds and our hearts and we are swept along on a tide that goes in a direction we do not know.

Many of us will be having dreams or nightmares that speak of the unknowns.  It’s simply how the mind copes when we cannot process our thoughts in our awake time.

Now is the time to be honest.  We will get through this.  Yet we need to remind ourselves very often, “Ah, there’s anxiety again... what am I feeling and why?”

We must begin to think of our emotions as important indicators of our mental health.  Our emotions aren’t bad.  They help us know how we are really experiencing this time of sheer uncertainty.

So, don’t shut them down.  We need to find a quiet place for a few seconds simply to say, “What is it that I’m feeling... God, help me to know so I can respond to my heart and give it what it needs,” which is reassurance.  We are safe with God.

We are good for nobody, least of all ourselves, when we sink into panic.  And it happens when we take in raw information that makes us feel really scared.

Instead of panicking we can ask ourselves why is it that we are responding this way.

We get our mind curious about our breathing difficulty, muscular tension and the preoccupation of our mind on negative thoughts, amid other symptoms.  We use our mind to join together with our heart, to listen to ourselves.  To slow down.  We smile even if it feels wrong.  We feel peace ebb in as we relax our muscles.

When we listen to ourselves, then we are able to listen to others.  If we are reading this, there is high likelihood that others need us.  What a blessing to be safe harbour for others.  But we need to know where the harbour is to help from there.

We remind ourselves that what we are feeling we will continue to feel.  The feeling of shock, now that we know it, is then predictable.  It will return, but we can know that we will survive it.  However unpleasant these feelings are, we will get used to this.

We are safest when we are honest and especially when we can be honest in community, so we must stay in touch with loved ones by phone/video call right now to support and to receive support.

Photo by Nick Owuor (astro.nic.visuals) on Unsplash