Trek – Week Twenty-Eight

What about focusing on facts instead of feelings?  While it is true that we can confuse our feelings with reality and act on a feeling rather than what is best for us, if we stay in our heads, we will never grow in relationship with others.  Remember, emotional awareness requires that we acknowledge, recognize, and identify our emotions.  Once we are aware of what we are feeling, we are able to express our feelings to others and find connection through emotional intimacy.  Healing and change always take place in the context of relationships.  We can focus on the facts all day long and still choose to behave in ways that are hurtful to ourselves and others.

Maintaining control of our feelings — stuffing them, suppressing them, or dismissing them — might seem like the best way to handle life, but ultimately underlying emotions will leak out into our lives in different ways.

–Melissa Haas, Emotions 101