Lição 1
All The Feels
On Day 1, we’ll explore the psychological background on why we feel feelings and how to make distinctions between our primary emotions. When we understand the origin story of our feelings, we increase our willingness to experience the full spectrum of emotion. We’ll begin to fine-tune our awareness of feelings, which is central to the process of emotional freedom.
Lição 2
Avoidance Tactics
We avoid bad feelings and crave good feelings. This patterning keeps us stuck in behaviors that often perpetuate our discomfort. On Day 2, we’ll take a closer look at popular strategies we use to avoid experiencing our uncomfortable emotions including substance use, numbing through media, and overworking. Unpacking our avoidance strategies helps us tune in to the feelings we push away most frequently.
Lição 3
Emotional Myth Busters
If emotions weren’t complicated enough, we also have layers of messaging that impact the way we experience our feelings. On Day 3, we’ll look at the social, cultural, and personal messages we are inundated with that inform how we experience and express emotion. We’ll pay particular attention to narratives based in racism and sexism that inform what we fear and how we experience anger, ultimately limiting our expression of emotion and connection with others.
Lição 4
Connecting With Emotion
Now that we’ve examined the machinery that runs our current system of emotion, we can start to write some new programming. On Day 4, we’ll use mindfulness strategies to help us connect with emotion. We’ll take a radically different approach to emotion than we are used to - leaning in when we are used to numbing out. As we become more familiar with our emotions, we’ll grow our confidence that feelings can be felt without getting overwhelmed. We’ll also look at common barriers to connecting with emotion.
Lição 5
Self-Soothing
Now that we know how to recognize and make room for emotion, we can increase our capacity to soothe ourselves effectively. On Day 5, we’ll learn methods for soothing ourselves at low, moderate, and severe levels of emotional discomfort. We’ll use strategies from Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Buddhist practice to decrease negative emotion effectively and without the problematic consequences that come with some of our unskillful coping strategies.
Lição 6
Cultivating Resilience
We can’t get rid of all discomfort, but we can alter how pain impacts us. Just like maintaining a healthy lifestyle can increase our physical resilience, we can take steps to increase our emotional resilience as well. On Day 6, we’ll cover strategies for self-compassion, accumulating positive experiences, building mastery, and coping ahead to name a few. Each tool is a way to restore our reserves of strength and openness, helping us be less negatively impacted by difficulty when it arises.
Lição 7
Breaking The Patterns: Ego & Shadow
Emotion is the fuel that keeps us stuck in problematic ways of seeing ourselves and relating to others. On Day 7, we’ll use our increased awareness of emotion to help us gain insight into our ego and shadow identities, which compromise the basic programming of our sense of self. The ego is a pattern of who we think we are, and the shadow is the pattern of what we reject about ourselves. We’ll learn how to acknowledge and integrate these often conflicting parts to gain greater coherence and peace.
Lição 8
Boundaries
Working with emotions is largely an inside job, but relationships are where we experience some of our biggest feelings. As we grow our capacity to manage emotion skillfully, we also need tools for effective boundary setting. On Day 8, we’ll look at common issues that arise in relationships, and how emotions such as guilt, fear, and resentment can drive our choices to be authentic or avoid boundary setting.
Lição 9
Beyond Discomfort: Mental Health & Trauma
Some discomfort is beyond our ability to meditate away or lean into. On Day 9, we’ll take a look at some indicators that our discomfort has a basis in trauma or mental illness and explore resources for wellness. We'll challenge the notion that will power and determination alone are enough to feel better, and explore the complex interconnections between individual wellness and community wellness. We'll discuss options for seeking help so you feel empowered to advocate for yourself and get the help you need.
Lição 10
Values-Based Living
Most of us make our choices around reducing discomfort and increasing comfort. When we do the important work of making room for pleasant and unpleasant feelings, we can shift our decision-making model to be based on our core values. On Day 10, we’ll look at how to get in touch with your core values and how to integrate them into the major spheres of life such as career, relationships, and community engagement.
