From 100 MORE Days of Weight Loss, Day 61
Facing your emotions doesn’t have to destroy you. When you take your feelings out of the dark, it makes them less scary.
You may discover that your grief, anger, and even bitterness aren’t as intense as you remembered.
Here are my answers to the three questions at the end of the lesson.
1. Describe how you showed your emotions as a child. Did you laugh easily? Cry hard?
Most of the time, showing emotions was fine. As kids, we used to try to make mom laugh so hard that she’d cry. So laughter was pretty common.
I don’t remember crying much because mom would give me cookies to make me stop.
And anger was absolutely not allowed. I was sent to my room to calm down (and pray) when I got angry.
2. Think about how you express emotions now. Describe how it’s changed over the years.
I don’t laugh as much anymore. I try to find things or people that make me laugh, but even my friends have become a lot more serious.
I’m also not likely to cry or show sadness easily, and anger is still a forbidden emotion. Amazing how that has stuck.
3. Identify common times when you eat instead of labeling or expressing your feelings.
I’m at risk for eating to suppress sadness or feeling insecure, especially with my work.
I also tend to want food when life feels empty or I feel disconnected from people. There are still times when I reach for food to fill my “empty heart.”
As I did this exercise today, it reminded me how much I love the “emotional box” concept. It gives us a great way to understand how we get so emotionally depleted or flat at times. Tomorrow will be good for looking at how to revive emotions.