How many times do you feel your feelings, and wonder what those feelings are conveying to you?
Sometimes we tend to take our feelings for granted and go all auto-pilot about them.
To experience a deeper connection with oneself, try to pay attention to both our good and less good feelings. Both types of feelings are teaching us. Our feelings illuminate how we’re thinking, reacting, and processing our experiences. We can learn how and what we’re creating as a result of them.
When it isn’t obvious, we might take a minute to find out why we’re feeling the way we do.
The other day I was at my computer for hours and I guess I wasn’t a happy camper. I kept thinking just a little more time and I’ll be done. I was pushing through my icky feelings. But at some point, I felt awful and asked myself why. And I just knew it was time to walk away and do anything else but what I had been doing. Anything to bring a little more joy in.
And how do we cultivate bringing higher feelings in? Being aware of what brings us joy.
We all love vacations right? But why do we feel so good on vacation? When we know specifically what makes us feel good we can bring more of those simple things into every day. I can’t afford to jump on a plane every week to vacation in order to feel amazing vacation feelings. But I can think about what it is I love about vacation experiences. I can bring more of those nice feelings into my week. It’s about adventure, enjoying great food, inspiring views, seeing new people in a different culture, and appreciating architecture. If I dig deeper, I also realize I love learning and connecting with people. There’s lots of laughter because I feel relaxed and carefree since it’s about having fun. Some of what I feel is inspiration. I’m inspired by the buildings, food, people, and art.
So on any given day in order to feel better, I can realize my choices. I can choose to do something that relaxes me, take time to experience art, or connect with people.
Maybe it’s best if I switch my focus by taking a break. Perhaps it’s driving into town to grab a bite by the water, or pop into my favorite funky art gallery. Could be I make time for a walk in the woods. Putting myself first ahead of my non-essential to-do punch list is a constant practice of self-awareness.
For example, keeping up on social media often is un-fun to me. For now anyways. I know now what part of my work inspires me. I focus more on the part I like rather than the tasks that constrict me. Perhaps the tasks that I really don’t enjoy doing, I can do less of. Or, I can allow someone else to handle tasks I find tedious. Or, I can play music while I’m tackling those tasks while taking breaks.
We can begin to see how easy it is to create opportunities that foster higher emotions. That’s one way to trusting and learning what our feelings are showing us.
We can learn to create our experiences and the kind that allows us to feel better. This is really helpful when we encounter the inevitable smaller cracks on our sidewalk of life so to speak.
This is important to practice regarding the bigger picture as well. There are a lot of confusing and troubling things going on in the world right now. It’s good for everyone if we’re all living in our higher emotions rather than our lower emotions. It takes focus, practice, and kicking the attraction to negativity to the curb. How we feel is so important to what we’re creating in every moment even the seemingly insignificant moments.
Being aware of our feelings on an ordinary day can assist us in shifting our thoughts and actions. This can lead to creating a better experience for ourselves and our world.