Creating Healthy Outlets for Our Emotions

These are dense days, there is no question. In so many ways, we are in a humanitarian crisis across the globe. As I talk about all the time, we mustcreate and cultivate practices that keep us anchored in our bodies and in the present moment.
 
Daily. Consistently. So that we can access ourselves in midst of these, sometimes overwhelming, swirls of life.
 
Today’s message is just taking on a slightly different flavor of this reminder, invitation, call to action...and that is around the essentialness of having an outlet for our emotional process.
 
Yes, there is the physical outlet that we all know is needed. Exercise of varying forms…dance, yoga, walking in nature, running…all help us to move energy through our bodies.
 
Yet, what has been magnified for me in recent interactions and in my own deepening awareness, is that we also really need that outlet for the words of our experiences. And, not necessarily in a linear sense, but rather in a more creative and fluid way. I personally love writing, obviously. It is an outlet for me to process life and all of its varying flavors and experiences.
 
Writing may not be your thing, but maybe it is drawing or recording voice memos for yourself or talking to a trusted professional and/or a friend who you can be vulnerable, real, and authentic with.
 
We have to be able to take that mask down and to liberate our voices in some way. 
We must cultivate and create healthy outlets to channel our creativity and support our emotional process.
 
When we bottle up our emotions and do not have an outlet to self-express, it is inevitable that they will come out sideways or turned internally, whether or not it is a conscious choice.
 
We may find ourselves numbing with food, sugar, or other substances, doom scrolling social media (guilty!!), distracting with outer stimulus such as TV or other random over usage of screen, etc. etc. This can cause us to feel dissociated, disconnected from ourselves and our bodies, and overly reactive on the whole.
 
We are not there, not present, and not emotionally resourced.
 
So, my invitation to you today is to not only think about what kind of outlet you need for your emotional process to also take action and begin. Breakthrough the stagnancy or internalization and start writing or drawing or speaking into your phone or making sure you are having real conversations with someone, anyone.

Even if you are a mover and move your body regularly, cultivating that healthy outlet for expressing our emotions is essential.
 
Please don't turn all this density on yourselves.
 
The last piece of this emotional outlet puzzle…it is so important to notoverthink it. Nothing needs to be perfect. In fact, I encourage you to be messy, to be real, to be unabashedly vulnerable and transparent…Get the stuck emotions out of you!
 
And, then, as you begin to circulate your emotions through these outlets, become more resourced in your bodies, connected to your true selves in the present moment… feel what it feels like. I encourage taking a “somatic memory” of these moments in time, creating an imprint of memory in your bodies, so as to access them when you may forget.
 
Over time, and with consistent practice and process, these imprints of feeling resourced in ourselves and in our bodies, grows and becomes more aligned in our day-to-day, moment-by-moment lives.
 
It becomes our experience of HOME.
 
From that place, we can move through emotions with more ease and grace, tapping into that well of strength and resilience that lies deep within each and every one of us.
 
Stay steady in yourselves.
Unplug whenever you possibly can.
Focus on your personal work and in growing yourselves and healing old patterns that are no longer serving.
Connect with those that *get* you…those whom you can be your true, vulnerable selves with.
Breathe deeply down into your bellies.
Trust in this wild unfolding and that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
 
 

And, if you need support, please reach out!
I am always here for support, encouragement, connection, inspiration, and profound empathy for the wild, human experience.