How To Feel Your Feelings

The phrase "feel your feelings" gets used a lot in self care spaces, but what does it mean? For some, feeling their feelings is a challenge as body sensations can be difficult to identify. For others, the smallest feeling can often trigger overwhelm. This short guided exercise explains how to begin this practice. If this practice elicits a response that is out of your window of capacity, it is highly recommended that you find a trained professional to begin this work.

Transcript

Hello and welcome. My name is Lindsay Johnson, And I'm your somatic nurse. Today I am going to talk to you a little bit about how to actually feel your feelings. I know that We often hear that we need to get out of our heads and into our bodies and actually feel our emotions. And I think for some of us that is super simple. We know what it feels like to the point of it is difficult to be with them. And for other people, It's a lot more challenging. For a variety of reasons. Some people. Have sort of shut off. The sensation. Of their body. For a variety of reasons could be that it's just overwhelming. And some people. Odd. Have not really considered that their body is a part of them. And so what we'll do. . . Is just take a moment. To Find. Where you are in space. Just starting to notice that you have a body. That you have boundaries to your body. You don't need to close your eyes if you don't want to. I often will, Just because I do find that. A little bit less. Input. Sensory-wise can help me really tune into my body. And so just taking a moment. Maybe to notice your feet on the floor. Your butt in the chair. Maybe something is propping your back up. And I'd like you to maybe call to mind. Something that feels just mildly pleasant. We're not going for the greatest joy in the world. We're not going for big emotion here. We're just going for mildly pleasant. Maybe there's something in the room that you can look at. That brings up mildly pleasant thoughts. Or mildly pleasant emotions. Maybe there's an individual. Or a pet. Or maybe something. . . Pleasant has happened to you today, I hope. And so as you bring your attention to that, I'd like to have you shift your awareness back to your body. And what do you notice when you do that? What do you notice? When you are no longer thinking? What do you notice with inside? Your being. Could be. That your spine relaxes. Maybe your hips. Unlock. Or melt into the seat. Maybe your neck or your shoulders. Relax. And when you feel like you I've noticed just a little bit of that. We can let that go. And so. That's a practice that takes a lot of learning, Essentially. I think for many of us, Myself included. When we get. Activated, Or triggered. Um. . . We notice that We can notice that there's this response, But the response is often very much in our heads. And so if we can take a little bit of time. To maybe sit with it. And allow for that sensation to be there. Without judgment. Without trying to push it away. Very often that sensation can. . . Be fully just realized in its existence. Like it can do its very regulated dance of coming up and then dissipating. The thing is about. . . Doing this is that oftentimes, Those sensations can be too much. And so in those moments, We need to start learning how to do things like titration. And titration is a somatic experiencing word that is borrowed from chemistry, Right? If you put a drop of acid into a base at a time, You can change the chemical nature of those two substances together. But if you put a ton of acid into the base, Perhaps it might explode. And so you might find that that is often what happens for you. You feel anger and you explode. And so if you can start to maybe take a step back from the emotion, Maybe putting the thing farther away from you. I will often tell my clients to maybe put it on a mountain farther away, Or maybe one of my clients likes to shrink it down as if it's like being able, You can see it through a microscope. I really like specifically working with anger. I really like to have my clients allow the anger to take up more space and instead of just being contained within their body. So it can take up the room. Maybe it can take up the building. Maybe it can take up your whole city. And so by doing that, It sort of dissipates in concentration, Right? It gets less concentrated within the body. And this one really works well for me if I am able to say, OK, Here I am. This is anger. I'm going to let it be bigger. My body? Just unbraces just a little bit, And I'm able to feel the anger. Which is a lot different from responding to the anger with a certain behavior. So. . . I am going to just have you take a moment again. And maybe take a look around the room one more time. Maybe settling on The same thing that made you feel a little bit pleasant before, Maybe something different, Or maybe calling to mind that individual or animal. And just taking a moment to. . . See if anything feels different. Maybe you're able to be a little bit more with that pleasant feeling. And this stuff takes time and a lot of practice. So if this is not something that really comes easy to you, Please know that this is a skill. And skills are not. Always going to be. Perfect. The first time you do them. Or even the millions. If you have any questions, Feel free to send them to me. Thanks for being here.

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