Emotional Flooding -a term often used by psychotherapists where raw emotions are triggered and the person if filled with out of control stressful feelings and thoughts. This is precipitated by something negative that has happened when one feels out of control and feels almost helpless. These raw emotions range from anger, shame, pain, guilt, deep sadness and can result in destructive behaviors and lapse judgment. A past event can trigger the emotions, a current event can trigger these emotions.
Raw emotions can leave you feeling very vulnerable. Raw emotions can make words come out of you that didn't know existed. Raw emotions can ruin your sleep patterns. Raw emotions can make you very defensive. Raw emotions can make you extremely overprotective. We don't even know when we are feeling what we are feeling.
We all at some point in our lives experienced these sort of emotions. What do we do when we have been in those situations? Do we suppress them fully so that we don't allow ourselves to feel any of the pain, the loss, the fear, the anger, the resentment? Or do we sit with all these feelings one by one as if we are moving from one passageway to the other? In my past life i intellectualized everything, i rationalized everything so I didn't have to feel anything. I didn't want to feel - b/c feeling meant I had to deal with things and I just didn't want to deal. Over the years things have shifted perspective for me and I have begun to give myself permission to feel - the good, the bad and the ugly. To feel is a good thing - but to get stuck in the feeling that is problematic. So when I find myself reacting to a situation I use that awareness to go inside to explore the feeling I am experiencing. Where does that feeling stem from? What in my life has got me so worked up about this? And where am I feeling out of control?
Feeling these emotions is no joke- but surprisingly by feeling them with awareness, it can also be liberating. I have taken it out of my system and i can just let it go into the air like a balloon. I spend alot of time with my son talking about his feelings that he gets so mad at me sometimes- saying - mom i don't want to talk - and for me the answer is talking is good- its important- u get things out of your system and you find better ways of coping. Sometimes we don' t know what to do with our feelings - and we don't even know what we are feeling and we just are frozen. That is what we need to tune into -so we can be better at recognizing our emotions.
What helps me? mindfulness, breathing movement-walking - drinking water- all of this has helped in tapping into what i am feeling and processing that.
In the world today we are constantly being bombarded with news of heartbreak, war, shootings, poverty, etc plus we have our own individual lives that are out of control and our loved ones either sick, depressed, or experiencing trauma - So what helps you? How do you deal with your emotions?
I often say this to myself - "this too shall pass." Today I discovered an artist who has created a beautiful picture book that speaks to emotions that we all have as humans called The Boy The Mole The Fox and The Horse https://www.charliemackesy.com/#the-book and it simply spoke to me. Pick one of these illustrations just write nonstop for 5-10 minutes non stop.
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