how to process an emotion *life-changing tips from a therapy veteran*

Steps: 1. Acknowledge and name the emotion 2. Pause and notice - don't avoid emotion or use distractions 3. Sit in silence for 5 mins. 4. Reflect on your day 5 mins before sleep 5. Emotional chart- name the emotion 6. Don't justify your feeling 7. Moving forward- the feeling may come up again but it will less intensive every consecutive time. Feel empowered for acknowledging and resolving your feelings. Have an healthy coping mechanism: exercise/ journaling/ talking to therapist, partner, friend/ walking/ pursue hobby/ shower/sleep.

From the perspective of someone a little older, if you’re working on any of this stuff in your 20s, and think that you’re behind in any way, I definitely want to let you know that you absolutely are NOT. ❤ There are so many people who continually go throughout their lives never addressing this stuff, even though it massively affects both them, and how they interact with the world around them. They still just flatly refuse to go anywhere near the issue. I say all this to say, just working on these things at all, and especially at such a young age, is incredibly commendable. And, you’re actually quite ahead in life to be looking at them now, so you should definitely take pride in your self awareness and your decisions, because it is not easy.

Emotional intelligence classes should be a thing. It’s even academically justifiable because it could get into other subjects like science, the arts, and business interpersonal skills.

I never really thought about how important knowing how to process emotions was. Society just expects people to know how to process emotions since they come up so naturally, and we are never explicitly taught how to do this. But the tips you provided just felt so helpful. Especially the one about reflecting on your day; there are just so many things going on in life that we never acknowledge, and they can wear us down without us knowing if we don't address them. I will definitely use some of these tips. Thank you!

I heard "you're too sensitive" my whole childhood from my family. It has definitely affected me my whole life.

I remember the first time I just let my anxiety course through me instead of trying to explain it or suppress it. I placed a hand on my chest and allowed my heart to beat rapidly until it finally calmed down. Afterward it was a lot easier to take myself out of anxiety spirals before they even started. In my childhood I was shamed for expressing distress despite it being an appropriate response to trauma I was experiencing. Being able to process negative emotions is essential for my mental wellbeing.

i'm an avoidant attachment that never knew to process or talk about emotions properly, the skill just never came to me naturally. thank you so much for sharing ❤

The " best dad" shirt " set the tone of calnmness. 😅😄

I was in therapy for several years with an EMDR therapist.... oddly enough, she never taught me anything about how to actually process an emotion. I spent hundreds of sessions digging through my childhood trauma, but just intellectualizing everything and continuing to bottle and avoid because it felt bad. Fast forward to now, and I can tell my body kept score all those years

FYI generally basic meditation practices ARE just sitting with your thoughts and emotions you're supposed to let whatever comes up come up. What's advised is to learn to pull your "mental spotlight" back a bit so rather than being trapped within those emotions you can... observe them from a distance. That does NOT mean not feeling them, but ultimately it's the reason for the concept of "not-self" or whatever, you are not your feelings because there isn't a you, not perceptually, just stuff that's happening and an observer. It's hard to explain but it DOES make this process easier.

the sitting for 5 minutes is pretty much medetation, you pay attention to what thoughts appear when you dont have anything distracting you from your emotions

Yeah, shower talk and shower CRY are such a relief!!!

commenting for the algorithm bc this was actually so helpful + practical! like people always say that you have to process your emotions & not avoid them in order to heal but i'm not sure i've ever heard anyone spell out exactly how to do that, or at least not in a way that's stuck with me. i think this video is one that i'll think of often moving forward :)

Everybody talk about processing emotions but nobody tells how to actually do it, its like they don't know it themselves and just repeats it, because its 'important'. Thank you so much for providing the knowledge to us! I wondered if you can heal yourself without therapy. I will make sure to follow what you've said in order to process my own trauma that i've been dealing with for a while and I acknowledged it but haven't done anything about it. Thanks again

I love this. It took me over 15 years of therapy to love myself enough to let my body process emotions. This year, at 30, after going one year sober, and after breaking up with what I thought was the love of my life, I finally held myself in my own arms and said "I'm proud of you. You're doing the right thing". Devestating, but so liberating. I always thought I was very emotionally mature. I would intelectualize everything, talk about it to no end, but never actually process any of it. It hits like a ton of bricks when you get there, but now crying feels like a release and not a catastrophy.

OMG i have been in therapy for 10 years with cptsd and this has been the most helpful thing anyone has told me so far. I have been asking how to process emotions for years and no therapist has answered that question, nor have I seen this online. No one tells you HOW. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!

I've always had to conceal my emotions when I'm around people and smile like a jooly fellow. When i react or act different, people ask me why I'm being moody or I indirectly wasn't acting as strong or as happy as they expect me to be. And when i get angry it's so hard to let go of, i don't have anger issues but i just can't forget the anger when someone cuts me off from their life because i think deep down I'm hurt about. I'll definitely download this video, thank you.

Subscribed. I've had over 20 years of trauma thanks to my family; and even though i go for therapy, I've realised there's so much self work to be done. I have no idea what emotions I feel (my go-to is any kind of distraction) because I didn't have the space to emote as a child. Thank you for this video. This is just the beginning of my journey.

the more experience i get in therapy (3+ years) the more frustrated i get when i observe friends constantly intellectualizing their emotions and projecting them all over the place ~ it's been helpful to pull out the feeling wheel with friends! really smart people aren't necessarily emotionally intelligent

8:41 hit me. I constantly feel that im always in the wrong for setting boundaries. And its been hard to regulate my emotions. Thus video is God sent. Thanks sm.