Some food for thought as you're posting about High-Way 4:
#1 "Feeling All Your Feelings" can be the difference between moving into a future full of promise and living a "shut down" life. It is required for happiness because it is the key to feeling better.
#2. In order to feel good, we must feel.
#3. Allowing more emotions can sometimes feel like a roller coaster ride; but as we start to understand them, they seem less and less frightening. As we give ourselves permission to feel anger and find healthy ways to express it, we actually have less of it.
#4. What we resist, persists.
#5. When anger is met with honesty and courage and expressed in healthy ways, it can become a source of personal power that can fuel you to do great things in the world. by Debbie Ford
This chapter was very good for me...a lot of information in here that pertains to me personally! The reasons we avoid feeling...(addictions, etc).
ReplyDeleteI learned from my childhood that we shouldn't express our emotions, other than happy ones. Suppressing those emotions does exact a high price! I also felt that when MK makes the parallel between suppressing those emotions and illness, is true. We are not our feelings and we are not our emotions. The Mad/Sad circle was very good!
When we feel more, we feel better!!!
I think there are some very practical guidelines in this chapter to help me with some of these issues!.. Anxious to hear from everyone else about this Hiway!!!!
The concept that resonated most with me throughout High-Way 4 was "There is no such thing as a negative feeling. Feelings just are. The word energy stands for "energy in motion." I have never though about emotions in that way, but it is a great descriptive set of words to describe emotions. Emotions are the energy that "moves" us, so the worst thing we can do is try and stop them. Once we realize that there's no such thing as a negative emotion, we can accept mad and sad as natural and healthy "energy in motion." I liked the section about Honoring the Balance and the Walk 'em out, talk 'em out, write 'em out, movie night 'em out, and art and music 'em out ideas. Those were all great ideas to do when you are feeling emotional.
ReplyDeleteToday my feeling is "overwhelmed". I have so many things going on right now. It seems like this time of the year always finds me BUSY, BUSY, BUSY. The good thing is I find myself taking a deep breathe and feeling so much better after I sit down and email my gratitudes.
ReplyDeleteFive or six years ago, I went through a volleyball situation here at Adams Central that changed my life forever. When my removal from the volleyball program first came about, I was analyzing the situation with my head. Nothing made sense to me. I kept asking the same question WHY? I am not a bad person. I was "running from" the situation. Eventually my feelings found me. I started feeling with my heart. I had so many feelings. There were times I was angry with school administration, parents, and school board; sad that my family was getting drug through the mud; rage; heartbroken that I would no longer be part of the lives of the volleyball players that I tried to mold into successful young ladies on and off the court; depressed; mad; scared as to what I should do next, jealous with the person who would be taking the volleyball program over because I had put so much time and energy in to build this program; etc...
During this time, I am so grateful that I had people who supported me and where there for me. Whether it was a shoulder to cry on or just to be there to listen, I don't know what I would have done without them. It would have been so easy to "give up". These people were my rock!!!!
I love Debbie Ford's quote: "When anger is met with honesty and courage and expressed in healthy ways, it can become a source of personal power that can fuel you to do great things in the world." I feel in the last five years, I have taken my anger and turned it into my power, my strength. I did not give up on my passion of coaching volleyball and molding the lives of young ladies. I continued to coach volleyball at a different school and truly believe I have made a positive impact. In order for me to feel good, I had to feel. My feelings allowed me to go from being upset about being disrespected to being a very RESPECTED PERSON AND COACH.
Twila Knehans
Great comments! This was a great chapter.
ReplyDeleteKay Jorgensen