In order to create healthy habits and the positive change you have never obtained before you are going to have to take different action. Taking different action and trying new things makes our human brains very uncomfortable.
Therefore, it is essential to practice embracing uncomfortable emotions in order to obtain new results and create positive change.
By Embracing Uncomfortable Emotions We Teach our Brains That We Can Handle Any Emotion and There’s Nothing We Aren’t Willing to Do
Before this year, I never made a video of myself and posted it on Facebook or Instagram. I don’t participate in social media much and sharing a video close up of my face was extraordinarily uncomfortable for me. It made me feel very vulnerable.
But in order to create the positive change I want in my career I had to allow, process and move through the fear of being vulnerable. And guess what? Feeling vulnerable didn’t kill me! I showed my brain that I could do it and survive. So the second time I posted a video, it was much easier for my brain to handle.
Why is Embracing Uncomfortable Emotions So Hard?
Embracing uncomfortable emotions is very challenging because we were never taught how to allow and process uncomfortable feelings. We were taught to avoid or buffer them.
We were often told, don’t be sad, don’t cry, there’s nothing to be afraid of, everything’s going to be fine. Let’s go get some ice cream to make you feel better. Turn that frown upside down. Let’s watch some TV so you can forget about it.
You get the point – no one has taught us how to process uncomfortable emotions.
The Problem with Resisting Uncomfortable Emotions
When you try to create a healthy habit, give up a bad habit, or create positive change you are going to create a lot of discomfort.
For example, if you have chosen to avoid snacking in-between meals and you are used to walking into the kitchen to grab a handful of pretzels when you need a break from work, it’s going to be very uncomfortable to not do it.
If you want to avoid the snacking, you have to allow and process the urge to reach for the pretzels. If you fight the urge, “I won’t eat the pretzels, I won’t eat the pretzels, I won’t eat the pretzels” you add resistance and tightness on top of the urge.
Eventually you cave because you just can’t take it.
How to Process Uncomfortable Emotions
The answer is allowing and breathing through the emotion. When the urge to eat the pretzels rises, recognize, allow and breath through it – “this is an urge. It is a feeling, not a problem and it will pass.”
When we teach our brains that the uncomfortable emotion is safe and that we can process it, it clears the path toward the positive change that we want to make.
If we teach ourselves that we can handle any uncomfortable emotion that comes our way, there’s nothing we can’t do to create a healthy habit or make the positive change we are wanting in our life!
- What uncomfortable emotion do you need to learn to sit with to achieve your long-term goals?
- Can you come up with a plan to process that discomfort?
I CAN HELP
My name is Laura Hayek and I am a nurse coach who helps empower women over 40 to create habits for a healthier body, mind and spirit.
Check out my website, www.laurahayek.com, to schedule a free coaching session to discover how I can help you on your journey to creating habits for holistic health!