We use the language of “feeling” emotions, but have you ever stopped to think about how exactly an emotion feels in your body? When you feel sad, what does your chest feel like? Your face and throat? Your shoulders, arms, legs, and belly?” Compare it to what it feels like to feel angry. Way different right? Sad feels heavy, cold, slow. Angry is hot, tense, agitated. Have you ever stopped to wonder why this is?

I believe that it is because emotions are primarily a messaging system – they are the language our body uses to communicate with our brain. And our body takes that job VERY seriously. To the point that if we try to ignore these messages, the body finds some pretty creative ways to get the message through. Maybe it ramps up the sensations to an extreme (hi, panic attack before a barely-important presentation!) Maybe it decides you aren’t good at understanding a certain feeling, so it throws another one on top of it to get your attention (have you ever felt SUPER MAD about something that really was scary, or sad, or embarrassing?)

Learning to tune back into this messaging system and start to allow some of the sensations through is, in my opinion, the key to decreasing emotional distress. I’m going to be honest, I don’t like that this is true anymore than you probably do. But I will meet you where you are at in this process to help you feel safe while re-learning how to connect with some of these body messages.