Why Allowing Yourself to Feel Emotions Is as Vital as Drinking Water

There are no positive or negative emotions. There are just emotions with some being easier to manage than others. Our emotions are signals or states that arise in response to our experiences, allowing us the opportunity to pay attention to the events that caused them. These experiences and events that set us off are often called triggers and can include feelings of loss, disapproval, rejection, shame, or helplessness.

Counselling can help you identify your triggers and understand what's causing you to feel overwhelmed or have difficulty managing your emotions. Working with a skilled counsellor can help you develop skills to avoid or reduce those triggers and manage your emotions to protect.

Understanding Emotions

Some emotions are easier to manage, while others challenge us. For simplicity, in this post, we’ll refer to “negative emotions” as those that bring pain, discomfort, and even suffering and “positive emotions” as those that bring relief, calm, confidence, and a sense of self-worth. But in truth, emotions are all part of the same spectrum of human experience. They are interconnected, and one cannot exist without the other. This interconnectedness can help us accept and manage our emotions more effectively, knowing that they are all part of the rich tapestry of our human experience.

The Daily Emotional Journey: Embracing Positive and Negative Emotions

A single day can bring forth positive and negative emotions. We might feel excitement and fear, contentment and worry, love and loneliness, joy and sadness, anger and calmness, confidence and insecurity. Perhaps the primary source of pain and discomfort is an attempt to separate those experiences. The challenge often lies in our desire to experience only positive emotions while avoiding or suppressing negative ones. We long for love without risking rejection, joy without sadness, or success without failure. Yet, negative emotions are an inherent part of our human experience, and denying them can limit our ability to experience the positive ones fully.

Realizing that Emotions are Neither Positive nor Negative, Just Human

We often struggle to realize that what we perceive as 'negative' emotions are inherent in the human experience. We tend to numb and exclude those emotions by using unhealthy coping mechanisms such as substance use, destructive or risky behaviours, binge and avoidance behaviours, oversleeping, overworking, ruminating, social isolation, or reaching for perfection. These habits mask our emotions and block our ability to feel joy, love, and calmness. Consequently, we lose opportunities to experience positive emotions. In shielding ourselves from discomfort, we miss out on growth, connection, and resilience.

The same desire to be detached from negative emotional states occurs in our relationships with self and others. We wish for love but do not want to be rejected; we want to succeed but do not want to fail. We want to explore but do not want to take risks.

Thus, the biggest and most challenging question is how do we allow ourselves to feel negative emotions without running away from them?

Facing Emotions: A Path to Healing

Emotions are complex biological and physiological responses to our environment, and they serve a purpose. It is hard to argue that these reactions do not exist. We all experience them, so they do exist for a reason and can be quite useful to feel. Imagine these emotional reactions, states or signals are messengers trying to tell us something important. Those messages can be precious if we just listen. Slowing down is one way to hear or put everything aside and fully focus on our inner experiences and negative emotional states. Listening and hearing what our emotions tell us allows us to recognize, identify, realize, investigate, wonder, turn towards, and face painful, uncomfortable, disturbing, sad, and overwhelming emotional states that cause us pain or discomfort. Yet, remember you are not alone in facing them, there are people around you who can help and support you in various ways.

While this can be challenging, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to do it alone. There are people around you who can help and support you in various ways, reminding you that you are not alone in your emotional journey.

Begin Emotionally Focused Therapy in Olds, Alberta

At Williamson & Associates, our therapists are professionally trained to walk alongside you on this difficult path of your healing journey by facing, listening, hearing and working towards accepting, overcoming, and learning to effectively manage your negative emotions. We are here to help you face your emotions, both positive and negative, in a safe and supportive environment. Together, we can work towards understanding and embracing these emotional states, empowering you to live a more balanced and fulfilling life. Contact us today to embrace emotions and support finding balance with counselling in Olds, Alberta.. Whether you’re in Olds or anywhere virtually across Alberta, we are ready to support your healing journey.