Identifying uncomfortable emotions
Examining the root – why is it so uncomfortable?
What is the fear - what’s the worst that could happen?
What to do with these emotions
Is it necessary to express verbally?
Productive ways to do so
Identifying coping mechanisms / Ways to process productively
"Using the basic idea presented here, identify how negative emotion interferes with communication and causes escalation. Outline three ideas to help prevent or mitigate this - keep the concept of small victories in mind when doing so."
My Owner tasked me to keep this first assignment as simple as possible, but I'm struggling with that a little bit as the ideas presented in the outline seem like big concepts - a lot to chew and swallow in one bite. I had to ask Her for help understanding the assignment and trying to figure out how to approach it. Seeking clarity helped - She wants me to look at this topic as an overview. That helped give me some direction.
This has come up a lot for me in the last few years. I really struggle with the experience of actually feeling a "negative" emotion. If I feel anger, frustration, annoyance, etc toward another person, I am immediately uncomfortable.
I really think that the very fact that I'm experiencing one of these unpleasant emotions causes me to feel anxious, and perhaps even guilty. This often causes the emotion itself to spiral out of control - which is a big contributor to the escalation of a situation where one of these emotions presents itself. I am angry - but then I am also anxious about being angry and now I am angry-anxious and the two play off of each other.
Three ideas to help mitigate this -
1. If I can learn to, in the moment, seperate the anger (or other emotion) from the anxiety I'm having about experiencing that emotion then I can address the anger/frustration/etc which will then mitigate the anxiety. Being able to distinguish which parts of what I'm feeling are actual emotion and which parts of what I'm feeling are fear-based can help me manage it better.
2. Learning to give myself permission to feel - "It's ok to be angry", "It's ok to be frustrated", then hopefully I can mitigate the anxiety altogether and then figure out next steps for how to process the emotion.
3. If I can find a way to not react/respond immediately to what I'm feeling when one of these uncomfortable emotions is involved so that I have TIME to do the things I've mentioned in #'s 1 and 2, then I am setting myself up for success. Whether it's taking a personal time-out before reacting, counting to ten, meditating, breathing, or doing some other action thing that will distract me enough to think through what I'm feeling - this could really help me deal in the moment.
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