Note: this post was originally written as an Atomic Essay as part of Ship 30 for 30 and posted on Twitter. I’ve copied the essay content here so it isn’t just lost in the endlessness of the Twitter feed. Enjoy!
About 9 years ago I was part of a year-long mastermind with a Life Coach that I adore.
At the time I was in the early stages of my personal growth journey and I was still learning about how to become aware of my thoughts, manage my self-talk and express my emotions instead of avoiding or numbing them.
I had a tendency to judge myself harshly for thinking or feeling a certain way and as you can imagine – it was not at all helpful.
During one of our one-on-one sessions, I was in a bit of a negative spiral and my coach said:
“No having feelings about your feelings.”
I remember it was like a record scratch moment for me. It took me a minute to process what she said and make sense of it.
In that moment it stopped my spiral and we were able to discuss the situation more objectively without my self-judgement getting in the way.
Since that coaching session, I have used this phrase many times to interrupt a line of negative or judgmental thinking. I’ve worked on being an objective observer of my emotions instead of beating myself up for having certain ones.
Since I’m an imperfect human, I definitely don’t get it right all the time, but I’ve improved. And that’s a win in my book.
