You Are Not Your Emotions

I want to talk about emotions, because for a long time, I believed I WAS my emotions. I had some pretty intense emotions, so that made sense. They appeared, I was there, in the throes of anger, or sadness, even joy (I could be really happy). I couldn’t really see myself separate from them.

Then someone said: You are Not Your Emotions.

This little five word phrase changed my life forever. Emotions are energy - vibrations. They are sensations that you feel in your body. And like all energy, this energy moves. It moves you to do things or not to do things.

Every single thing we do in our lives is driven by how we think it will make us feel.

Every decision we make, every dream we achieve or let die, and every relationship we nurture or ruin is based on how we want to feel. This may seem like good news or a super confusing consideration. But stay with me. Because it’s really liberating once you get it.

Feelings come from our thoughts. They do not happen to us. We create them with our thoughts. Even if we aren’t aware of the thought causing them, feelings always follow thoughts and never the other way around. And once we have them, we need to do something with them.

Emotions are like our GPS system for our lives. But feeling more or feeling less is not the aim of spiritual growth. It’s about feeling more accurately, perceiving everything with more love that matters.

—Danielle LaPorte

Think of it like water. It flows in the direction of least resistance, right? It’s very difficult to contain if you don’t have the right tools to contain it, it is impossible to make it go away and it doesn’t flow uphill, it always flows downhill. Any desire to resist or avoid it - causes damage. What happens on the coast when a hurricane is coming? You know it’s coming - you prepare for it. You give it direction. You give the water a way out. You put up barricades (where you don’t want it to go) and you create trenches (where you want it to go). You allow the water to flow.

This is what I have to offer you, maybe something to consider…

What if you are NOT your emotions in the meta sense but rather HAVE emotions that you experience. And so it’s not what or how much you have to experience, but rather - where you can affect your life - what you DO with it that counts.

I was going to travel to the other side of the world, for the first time, for work - and I was leaving my babes at home - and that freaked me out. All I could imagine was the big blue ocean between us and no rocket launcher to get me home if they needed me. Weeks before the trip, I had these moments where I was literally gripped by fear. I could feel it all around me, so tight, I could barely breathe.

I had to take a moment to sit with it, because I literally couldn’t move.

Eventually, as these moments would come up, I would go to my room, lay on my bed and just breathe.

I would let the grip hold.

I would let the tears flow.

I would let the terrible thoughts come.

After a few minutes, it would let up. Didn’t think much of it. Just knew that I loved my kids and I was going to be okay.

The day came to get on that plane and I was blown away.

I had no tears.

I had no fears.

I had no desire to stay home.

I got to love on my kids, get on that plane and take the trip of a lifetime!

Feeling my feelings, regardless of what they were or how bad they felt, CHANGED MY LIFE.

I could have denied myself the sadness beforehand and it would have consumed me at the gate, or on the plane, or on my trip. And I have many examples of that too. But those moments didn’t change my life.

This one did.

Something to consider as the next storm comes in your life: you are not your feelings. You are a “higher” energy being that is accommodating the “lower” energies of feelings. You're the sky. The emotions are the storm clouds.

Which is not to say emotions are low vibe — but they ARE the energy that is used to move you. And if you understand that, you have access to its power and you can use that power to move you forward - to create in your life what you most want, be the person you most want to be.

So, when something feels like pressure — stay with it until it doesn’t. The key is compassionate curiosity because… you are not our emotions.

It's not a matter of what you have, wanting MORE or LESS of it, but what you DO with it that matters.

Trust your heart.

Take that leap of faith.

Go on a journey that is literally guaranteed to change your life for the better.

Coaching on Purpose is it — and focus on what really matters. You are not your emotions — you are much more than that.

Here is a quick and easy worksheet to do the next time you are in the throes of an emotion. It helps you see the emotion for what it is - sensations in your body. Once you witness it as just that, it is easier to see where it comes from & what it does in your life.

If you are interested in exploring further, book a Free Discovery Call.