Becoming An Emotional Warrior

This track guides you in building emotional strength without shutting down or hardening yourself. It explores what it means to face your feelings with courage, set boundaries, and stay grounded even in challenging moments. You’ll be introduced to simple mindset shifts and practices that help you respond instead of react. By the end, you’ll feel more empowered, steady, and capable of navigating your emotions with confidence.

Transcript

Hello and welcome, Today's talk is How to Become an Emotional Warrior. Hey, So I had my TEDx talk this last weekend and gosh it was a lot of stress leading up to the event. There was the personal stress and pressure I felt to memorize a 9 minute talk and deliver it fresh, Which I've never done. Then there was the stress and the tension I felt in the world with war and conflict and what was happening in Gaza. So, Even just seeing the news and knowing that this was happening and that my talk is about peace and sharing healing feminine energy, I really wanted to be able to tap into this message and be able to share it on that level. So, It went well, It was in a great venue, In a theater, So it had an intimate setting and it was the perfect first place for a TED talk. So, Here's what I did to create a calmer container for myself going into the event even during and after I decided the week ahead that I was going to create sacred space and that meant letting go of some work projects, Sometimes I get a lot of texts so I let go of texting and I started to consciously create a container where I could be in a more prayerful meditative state and I found that to be really supportive. I also reached out to some people who I consider soul friends and I asked to either have connection with them or for some support energetically on the day of the event when we had also a solar eclipse. So, It was amazing to go out and see the eclipse right before the event where the sun was positioned behind the moon. So, If you think about that symbolically, The sun being masculine energy behind the moon, The feminine energy, That just felt like a divine sign to be able to see that right before I got on stage. And then I decided to let go of an additional work event this week so I could have more time to rest and recover. So, Just from being around a lot of people, Knowing that I was going to be physically doing more things, Driving through freeway traffic, Being around a lot of people, I knew I would need more time for that. So, That is what I did for myself and it ended up being a hugely successful, Inspiring, And it was just 20 amazing people and it all came together so well and it was just an unforgettable kind of event. But there is such a thing as TEDxBlues, Which is coming down from such a high stress event and just kind of feeling what I felt even just walking off the stage, Just that sense of release. But with that, There is a chemical release that happens once you have that much adrenaline pumping through your body. It can happen after any intense stress event, That you have all this energy and then you kind of come down from that. So, I definitely experienced that as well and I was so aware the whole time about my inner emotions, What was happening, The feelings of overwhelm, And just acutely aware that our emotions drive everything. A lot of just what we feel in life, It all comes from our deeper emotions and it's so important to be connected to ourselves so that we can take care of ourselves. And especially when we're starting to feel emotional disconnection. So it's vitally important because we're interacting and interfacing with people every day, Whether it's at work or just out when we go out shopping, In our relationships, Our intimate relationships, That feeling of emotional flow and the need to connect and having social bonding is such an instrumental part of our well-being and our sense of fulfillment. So we know that things go way better when we feel emotionally safe and secure with people. We are the leader of our own emotions, But we can also lead in our relationships whenever we don't feel that emotional connection. So we get to choose how we want to relate. And I just want to share with you this term that popped into my head this week called emotional blindness, Emotional blindness. And I thought of this because it's a little more directed than saying somebody is emotionally unavailable or unaware. And emotional blindness is when people are not connected to their own feelings and emotions, And then they lack the feelings and emotions, The awareness of others. And in a sense, They're disconnected from their own feelings and their own emotions, And they do not realize how their actions and behaviors affect the feelings and emotions of others. So a severe form of emotional blindness is gaslighting from a narcissist where they're just can't even acknowledge your feelings or your reality. It's only about their reality. But emotional blindness that can often be prevalent where people aren't really tuned in to the deeper feeling, Which is important. How people feel at work is important. How people feel in their relationships is vitally important. And so it's helpful to know this because what can happen when we experience this emotional disconnection and blindness is that we can adopt their blindness in order to conform in order not to cause waves, Conflict, Or discomfort for somebody who may be in a position of leadership. They might be leading. They might be caregiving. And so we kind of leave it to them to lead what happens emotionally. And the key, The antidote to not allowing this blindness to prevail is that we choose to stay emotionally aware and connected within ourselves and that we choose to communicate and express in a way that the emotionally blind can connect to what we want to communicate. So it's about staying connected even when we see and feel disconnected. Because when there is emotional blindness, It can feel like somebody's putting the cover on you as well. And we want to choose to take that cover off and stay aware and awake whenever we see this kind of emotional disconnection happening. And when we choose to do that, We foster trust and safety. And the key is also knowing that for us to feel safe to express in a space that feels emotionally disconnected, That we need to create that sense of safety within ourselves. That is something that we can turn to ourselves and resource from within ourselves, Our practice, Connecting back in and choosing not to, Let's say you did choose to share what you experienced and what you felt. So you chose to share the truth of your experience and what you felt. And even if that isn't met, Understood, Or validated, That you can still validate yourself. Because there's always a risk whenever you share the truth of your experience, There's always a risk of not being seen, Of being judged, Of being degraded, Even excluded and rejected for having spoken what you feel. Because feelings are tangible. It's not something you can prove. So people can easily try to disprove that or dispel or not really acknowledge what you have gone through personally. So this is about knowing that your own emotions and what's coming up within you and your feelings are important, Equally as important as what somebody else is going through. So even if you don't get that acknowledgement and flow that you can still stay centered and anchored within yourself and not doubt yourself, Not invalidate yourself, But to say, This was my experience, This is what it was and put it out there for yourself and for others. So I think this is a really important skill in becoming an emotional warrior today, Because we see this everywhere. We feel it all the time. And so to be able to recognize this, Put a name and a term to it and say, Do I feel safe to express? Would it be helpful and kind and beneficial to express? Well, Yes, Usually it is because what you feel matters. And if you're feeling it, The chances of other people feeling it is also there. And feelings, Even though they're temporary, Which we say through meditation, They are also an essential part of our existence. We are human and we're here to feel the whole range of emotions and to have permission to tap into any emotion, Feel them, Express them, Have them and be okay with them. A question you can come away with is, What can I do to foster my own emotional awareness, To foster my own intelligence so that I can have connection, Authentic connection with others? Thank you so much. For listening to today's talk, How to become an emotional warrior.