response

I've been practicing choosing my emotional responses lately. So the typical uncomfortable ones will come up once they've been activated - anger, frustration, sadness, etc - and I'll notice them, then aim to finish feeling whatever's there and swap it to another.

It's been interesting. I don't want to suppress or deny the emotions that come up and tell myself that I'm happy happy happy la la la so it can get pushed down and out in the form of hemmerhoids etc, so I've been careful to acknowledge and accept whatever energy is already there. But I've also been playing around with the interpretation of the events generating the emotions, or even just letting go of whatever story is playing across my mind. Acknowledging that the uncomfortable emotion is being generated by my interpretations, aka my thoughts, and disengaging from whatever internal monologue is generating the feeling. Shifting my attention instead to breathing, looking, listening, and just being present with the sensations I'm feeling. If nothing else it seems to allow it to dissipate sooner.

Another aspect is welcoming the discomfort rather than trying to push it away. In terms of feeling this is kind of like an opening and softening to the emotions rather than closing off and resisting them. More of a letting go and melting into as opposed to tensing up and hardening against. It can also come with me telling myself that this is okay, whatever I'm feeling is okay, I welcome it, come on in and such. It can feel a bit like standing on a beach with open arms while being battered by incoming waves. But it passes.

So far all the times I've done the above have been pretty low stakes so I'm not sure how effective it'll be in more stressful situations. But it can't hurt to practice for when those times come.