Saturday, July 30, 2011

Allowing Myself To Feel Negative Emotions

I was working on my computer today when something happened to upset me. I immediately tried to quash my feelings of distress, telling myself that I had no real reason to be upset, and to just ignore what I was feeling and get back to work. Then, miraculously, I realized how unfair I was being to myself.

I was feeling what I was feeling. It didn't matter if the reason that I was upset was a good reason to be upset or not. I was upset. And I had every right to be. No matter what the cause for the distress was.

Instead of continuing to berate myself, I told myself that I was allowed to feel upset, and I gave myself the time to accept my emotions and work through them, instead of just trying to deny that they existed.

And the pride that I felt for actually noticing that nasty little psychological habit of dis-allowing negative emotions, and nipping it in the bud, helped counteract some of the distress that I was feeling.

I guess all those years of therapy are finally paying off.

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