Are You Feeling All the Feels?
Have you heard of Susan David yet?
She's a world-renowned psychologist and the author of Emotional Agility. In her book she describes using our emotions as sign posts or data that can be collected and then used to help inform our response to them.
For example, instead of saying "I am angry," if we say, "I am feeling angry" we have created just a bit of space in between ourselves and the emotion. It is in this space that we get to increase our awareness and get curious about what we are actually feeling:
Where is this anger being held in my body?
What message/information is anger sharing with me?
Am I angry because someone over-stepped my boundaries?...and then choose how to respond.
She has a beautiful "Emotional Agility Manifesto" that encourages you to use tiny daily tweaks to help make lasting change. These are a few of my favorites:
Accept your full self—both the so-called “good” and “bad” emotions, your strengths, your anxieties, the whole package—with compassion, courage, and curiosity. Acceptance is a prerequisite for change.
Welcome your inner experiences, breathe into them, and learn their contours without racing for the exit.
Free yourself from pursuing perfection so you can enjoy the process of loving and living.
Abandon the idea of being fearless, and instead walk directly into your fears, with your values as your guide, toward what matters to you. Courage is not an absence of fear; courage is fear walking.
Her work resonates so deeply since it overlaps with our creative process in so many ways. In our women's groups we talk about:
Turning towards our internal sense of self and listening and respecting what comes up for us....the "good" the "bad" and the "ugly." We are encouraged to honor ALL of our emotions and place them directly into our painting.
We get curious about our inner experinces by first identifying where we are holding our emotion in our bodies. This helps increase our awareness around them as we gently take them out of the shadow and into the light.
We let go of perfecting the final product and instead focus on the moment to moment experience we are having with ourselves. We return to the idea that PROCESS can offer love, joy and freedom.
We turn towards the difficulty and use these moments as doorways or opportunities to go deeper. We know that our difficulties hold insight. As Brené Brown says, "What stands in the way, IS the way."
Is creating in your personal maintenance plan?
I think it should be :)
NEW 6 Week Virtual Process Painting Series beginning in April:
Tuesdays 6:30-8:30pm
4/13 - 5/18
Thursdays 6:30-8:30pm
4/15 - 5/20
Fridays 10am-12pm
4/16 - 5/21
Group not your thing? Individual sessions are available.