Get to know your feelings by name. If we didn’t grow up in a family where our full range of emotions was accepted – maybe we were criticized when we were sad or angry- we didn’t learn to be with our own feelings and now we don’t trust that other people can make space for them. As adults, we may have become so used to disconnecting that we don’t even know how we feel anymore. This sounds so elementary, but sometimes with clients I use an emotional wheel, it’s a circular chart that shows the range of human emotions and how they relate to one another. Say you’re feeling sad; on the wheel sadness has the subcategories loneliness, hurt, and disappointment, which are three very different feelings. This helps you narrow it down and use a word that captures your internal world. You can pick a word from the emotional wheel and the best discovers what’s going on with you at the moment. It’s a gentle way to learn to identify and describe your emotions, and you can begin to establish that it’s safe to feel and connect to them. You may be tempted to judge yourself for those emotions, the same way you were judged growing up. Instead, try replacing that judgment with curiosity. What prompted this feeling, and why? See if you can focus on gaining insight instead of being self – critical.  – Viena Pharaon

Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…