Anger, Rage, Disappointment & Grief
This weekend my client DMs were full of messages about anger, rage, disappointment, and grief…
Many were directly related to the Supreme Court ruling that is terrifying and unjust. My clients are mothers worried for their daughters and human beings worried for themselves and their friends.
This was compounded with the reality of every day life…betrayal, heartbreak, stress, overwhelm.
Whatever the cause, the messages asking for support and guidance were similar, “I'm feeling [insert emotion here] and I'm really tempted to drink…how do I work through this?"
If you're in a similar space, I created this post over on IG aimed at guiding you through the steps of embracing anger, rage (and other strong emotions). Take a look and give it a save for later.
Also, I want to offer some very important reminders:
It is unlikely that you were taught how to embrace anger and rage. Rather, you were taught to stifle them down. For this reason, these emotions can feel impermissible; even unsafe to feel and express. You desperately need to learn the skill of expressing them in a safe container.
Why? When emotions are impermissible or unsafe, we are tempted to repress them and numb them down. We might pretend that everything is okay, or we might drink (or engage in some other numbing activity).
This is not helpful for many reasons:
Unexpressed rage turns into disease & dis-ease of all kinds…these things slow you down…they take away your power.
The act of numbing (particularly drinking) puts you in a place of submission and inaction…this is not the time to submit
The most powerful thing you can do is to feel, embody, and express your anger and rage in a safe way and then to use that anger and rage to take action. This is not just in reference to a federal ruling, but to any conflict in your life…no matter what has caused you to feel big emotions, drinking your way through takes away your clarity and your power.
It's so, SO important to feel our emotions before acting on them. This allows us to take action from a more grounded, intelligent, powerful place (vs a place of reaction).
Therefore, although it may feel easier and even harmless to numb out for a night, I must remind you that you are more powerful in every aspect of your life if you're able to show up in your full capacity. Whether you're dealing with a tough day at work, a conflict with a friend or lover, a breakup, a crazy day with your kiddos or anything in between…you will be infinitely more proud of how you show up if you show up from a place of groundedness.
If you're new to processing big emotions like anger and rage, this post is seriously a great place to start. And, while the steps might seem too easy to be helpful, I know that if you follow them, you will increase your capacity to show up in this world.
In case no one has acknowledged it, I know how freaking hard it is to be curious, to choose to grow, to take on your own healing and to show up for yourself and your emotions. No matter how far along you are on your journey, just being on this email list and choosing to read this email and maybe try on the practices I shared over on IG is a massive step that most people will never make…I think that's pretty rad and I am really proud of you. Keep going. I'm here with you. You've got this. We've got this.
To that end, please let me know if there is anything, specifically, I can share to further help support you right now. I'm here for you.
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