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The chaos in Washington is triggering anxiety for many. What can we do to stress protect ourselves in a time when emotional suppression and fear of feelings is rampant in the United States?
Emotional suppression leads to toxic stress overload and the epidemic of emotional health, behavioral health, and chronic diseases in our nation. Research has shown that it increases the risk of aggressive behaviors, too. It's time to find healthy ways to express our emotions.
The advances in emotional processing are so impressive that we can choose another way. The charge of EBT is: "Don't Suppress. Safely Express!" An example of this is the new methods based on neurophysiology that give us a way to process stress-fueled negative emotions into positive emotions and calm. To begin making the transition to stop suppressing your emotions, take these three steps:
1. Check your fear factor.
How much do you suppress your emotions? The more stress symptoms you have, such as anxiety, numbness, depression, irritability as well as behavioral health and physical health problems, the more likely you are to have a fear of feeling your feelings.
2. Stop judging your negative emotions.
The stress response is two-step: first a flash of activation which we cannot control, then a time of opportunity to effectively process the negative emotions or emotional shutdown. If we judge those states as bad instead of a message that it's a great time to process our emotions, we'll suppress them.
3. Let go of overthinking, self-diagnosing, and toxic analysis.
Some people do not judge their negative emotions, but instead, start analyzing their emotions. Asking yourself, "Why do I feel that way?" is typically a pathway to emotional suppression. When in stress, emotions are not logical. What do we need to do? Process our emotions safely and spiral up to a state of optimal connection. This is the use of emotions based on biology, not psychology, and it works.
In this time of stress overload, vow to stop the emotional suppression that is harming us all and instead, help stop the national epidemic of emotional suppression. The rioters may have suppressed for so long, that they had such toxic emotions that they sought others whose emotions were equally toxic.
Yet it is not just about "them."
Right now, chances are you are suppressing your emotions for fear of feeling. The biologically natural and best way to release stress rapidly is through safe and effective emotional expression. EBT has codified the way that mothers guide their babies in safety expressing that transform their stress into joy. You can learn how to do that too, and the entire process takes about three minutes. Nobody knows you are using it, except that your face brightens, your mood shifts, you stop craving those carbs, and you start finding joy in your life.
What is the take-home message from the riot in our nation's capital? Become part of the solution and don't suppress your emotions. Discover your brain's hidden resiliency pathways and safely express your emotions with EBT.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have codified the way a mother emotionally connects with a stressed infant and moves through negative emotions to positive ones as the method, EBT. The science is not based on psychology but on the biology of stress and emotions. You can begin using it by expressing emotions in this order: anger, sadness, fear, and guilt to switch off the stress response, followed by feeling grateful, happy, secure, and proud.
Fear of feelings in the national epidemic under all other epidemics caused by stress. As we recover from the trauma of the election, learning how to stop fearing our feelings and instead, expressing them safely may be a key aspect of our recovery and pave the way to resilience.
