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Stress Management: Minding the Emotional Intensity of Life

As I prepare to lead a discussion group on the topic of Creating a Meaningful Journal, I am reminded that journals are a place where we can pour out and examine our emotions with a sense of curiosity. I have observed that a majority of coaching clients are seeking guidance on their life purpose. My belief is that emotions offer the answers they are after.

Emotions play a critical role to help you navigate the big life lessons that bring true purpose to your unique mission as a human being.

Many coaches don’t delve into emotions, preferring to leave that to licensed therapists. I must step up and say that coaches, especially those with specialized training in Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) or other emotional self-care processes are appropriate resources for healthy clients seeking to honor emotions as part of a balanced self-awareness plan. EFT is an incredible tool for restoring the balance of energy flow in the body while also creating a calm sense of emotional well-bring. Best of all, EFT is an empowering self-care tool that helps you deal with emotions as they come up with a new sense of confidence.

You can begin to recognize and balance your stress by working with emotions for guidance. More often than not, the pain, discomfort and tension can be traced to emotions that have been repeatedly stuffed away for days, weeks, months and even years. You can’t heal what you don’t recognize. Stress only compounds as emotions get stuffed away. Having intense emotions does not mean that you are sick, mentally ill or depressed. Emotions mean you are human! Healing begins once you can accept that emotions are a normal and helpful part of your life experience.

It is time to realize that each moment of extreme emotional intensity, whether it is a high blissful state or one of agony, teach us about who we are, what we value and what kind of path we are on.

Honoring Emotional Intensity Through Writing

Consider beginning a process to document your emotional peaks and valleys each day. I suggest the following each morning as you reflect on the previous day in your personal journal:

List 3-5 of your peak “intensity moments” each day and identify the scene and specific emotion you felt. You may choose to give each feeling a name, color, shape, size and texture too. Rate the intensity of this feeling on a scale of 0-10. Intensity moments can be scenes of pure joy, gratitude, fear, worry, rage, shame or anger just to name a few. They are the highest peaks and the lowest valleys. Some days you will have more of one extreme than another. If you don’t have much intensity some days, that is fine too. (I find this usually happens when I am on vacation and totally relaxed, which is interesting indeed!) Pay attention to the most intense feelings and scenes from your day, be honest about what you felt, give them a name and a number rating. Notice if the feeling is a familiar or regularly occurring one or something relatively new and unique.
Comment about how you dealt with the feeling. If you used a healing technique like EFT to process a painful or unpleasant emotion, jot down some a note about what you did and how you felt after your self-care treatment. If you medicated your intense emotion with food, alcohol, cigarettes or shopping, you might also want to admit this in your journal. Also jot down a note if you celebrated an emotional high through expressing gratitude or by sharing your joy with someone else.
Is this feeling or scene revealing your unique part of a bigger picture? Consider what this intensity is telling you about who you are. When your core values are disrupted or challenged, you will be agitated. You may notice that the same ugly feelings repeat themselves regularly around common themes. This is something to explore with greater curiosity. Likewise, when your values are well-served, you will feel calm and wonderful. Allow these intense feelings to reveal your mission, purpose and inner longings. As you use emotions to know yourself better, you will recognize how your unique nature connects to the bigger picture and helps you serve the world around you. It may take a few weeks to begin getting a sense of this, so instead of hurrying the process, simply witness and reflect on it.

You are here to be uniquely you, emotions and all. Pay attention and you will awaken a new way of understanding your deepest truth.

Want to learn more about Emotional Freedom Techniques, energy self-care and using a journal to as part of your personal energy makeover? A great resource for learning about EFT is The EFT Manual by Gary Craig, founder of the technique. You can also learn more about Energy Psychology and find listings of certified EFT Practitioners at www.energypsychology.org or at www.EFTUniverse.com. You will also find additional resources and short videos at www.energymakeover4U.com to assist you.