We all are born with a certain amount of intuition. The problem is, from a very young age we are often told to ignore our feelings, to not trust our emotions, or that these things are just wrong. Much like force-feeding an infant can cause the child to start ignoring their natural hunger control mechanism, it is the same when it comes to learning to trust our emotions. The more we have been taught to push down our feelings, the more likely we are not to trust our emotions.
11 Things To Help Us Learn To Trust Our Emotions
What follows is eleven key things we can each apply easily and readily in our everyday lives to help us learn to trust our emotions. read through these carefully and you will be ready to take a big step forward in your life.
We Get a Feeling in Our Gut That Something Is Wrong
Everyone has a natural ability to know if something is not right in any given situation. The problem is, over time we may have pushed down those feelings as wrong or even crazy. Sometimes we meet a new person and for no known reason we feel like something is off. We talk to someone and believe they are lying. While we may not want to react on these instances that are not cause for immediate danger, keep an open mind and keep our eyes open. Chances are we will find out that we are right more than we are wrong.
The Hairs on the Back of Our Neck Stand Up
Every human is born with a flight or fight effect. Sometimes the hairs on the back of our neck will stand up, or we get prickly and feel like running. Most of the time, we should pay attention to this feeling. Often, we will find that when we feel that way a spider is nearby or we are in serious danger. Do not ignore these nagging feelings, ever. Even if we turn out to be wrong, it was best to be safe.
We Feel a Tug to Help Someone
T.V. commercials use these emotions when they want us to send money to save the starving children in Africa or donate to save abused animals. The feelings we experience when watching those commercials are normal and we should respect them. When we feel compelled to help people, do not push it down. Freely offer help because to deny our feelings about this will cause us to feel bad about ourselves.
We Feel Pulled to Do Something Different
For example, we are sitting in our cubicle at work, bored to tears, wanting desperately to do something different but we are afraid to change. If we feel pulled in a new direction, take the time to give it some real consideration instead of nixing it immediately. Bill Gates did not allow nagging doubt to stop him from becoming so successful.
We Feel Confident in Our Abilities
When we are feeling confident, we should not push those feelings down. We all have a right to feel good about what we are doing and to feel capable. When we feel good about ourselves it is not misplaced pride or bragging. Most often, people (especially women) are taught from a young age not to boast about their abilities. This puts young women at a disadvantage from their male counterparts when it comes to jobs and fair pay. We all must allow ourselves to feel confident when it is appropriate; men and women both!
Make Our Environment Comfortable
Emotions need a safe environment to be felt fully. We can be our own best friend. Each of us can create the right environment that is safe for us to feel the emotions that we have. We must make our homes safe for ourselves and safe for our entire family. As Dr. Phil puts it, "Home should be a safe place to fall."
Acknowledge the Different Emotions We Experience
We must learn to trust our emotions, not push them away. trust our emotions that we have about drugs, alcohol or food. We must allow ourselves to experience a full range of emotions as appropriate. Of course, we do have to show some measure of propriety in public, but we can express and trust our emotions in the appropriate places as they come to us.
Try to Name the Emotions Others Are Having
In order to improve our capacity for empathy, practice naming and expressing the emotions that other people are having. People who can show great empathy to others, even if they have not gone through the situation themselves, have much happier lives than those who cannot relate to other human beings at all. We do not have to be homeless ourselves to understand how truly demoralizing the experience will be to someone else.
Write Down Our Feelings
Journaling is an important tool that can help us understand and trust our emotions. We should all keep a feelings journal for ourselves to help us process different feelings that we are having, and different feelings that we note that other people have about situations in life. Our feelings journal can help us work through our emotions in a healthy way, as well as give us something to look back at when we are having trouble.
Test Our Judgment Accuracy and Go for It
If we are afraid to go with our gut due to having pushed down the skill from a young age, we can pick one thing to test. For example, if we feel like we need to switch jobs, we can start job hunting in earnest. It will not hurt for us to go on some job interviews to test our intuition. We might find the job of a lifetime. We will never know how it really feels unless we try it.
It Is All About Learning to Trust Our Emotions
As we learn to trust our emotions by practicing actually feeling them, we will get better at discerning what is right and wrong. It is time for all of us to begin learning to trust our emotions.
What Wikipedia has to say about Emotions. Here is another newsletter post that relates to trusting our emotions.