Conquer the Emotions that Keep You Up at Night
People tend to think that healing and change are about having the perfect action plan, but as I recently discussed with Amy Ahlers, the Wake-Up Call Coach, in a one-hour call for Women Masters, more often than not, it's about emotions. The actions of losing weight, quitting smoking, getting divorced and so on are actually very easy. It's the feelings associated with them that tend to keep us stuck. Healing and change begin when you stop resisting these emotions.
Let's say you have fear, anxiety, doubt or some other emotion coming up at 4:00 a.m. Rather than thinking, "I feel crazy or terrible," label the emotion like so, "I have some anxiety coming up." The minute you label the feeling, you start to disidentify from the turmoil and drama of it.
Once you do, you can welcome the emotion. Become a witness to it. Your mind will try to take you into the garbage and tell you that that's who you are, but don't let it. Literally say, wow, my mind is feeding me some crazy stuff right now. Detaching from the feeling is where you'll find your strength.
Listen to my one-hour Women Masters call with Amy Ahlers.
A few nights ago I woke up feeling very scared. I live in a country that is becoming more and more unsafe and, after having a girls night out, I found myself in a state of panick until I got home and went to sleep. Only minutes after falling asleep, I woke up trembling and scared, thinking about all those horrible things that are happening. But then, I sat on my bed, took a deep breath, looked for my gratitude journal and focused on writing about the good things that happened that day. It calmed me down and I could go back to sleep in a state of relaxation and safety.