Which feelings should one “work through” and which feelings should
one express? I am conflict-averse by nature so received wisdom holds that
I should get better at asserting my boundaries. But in at least two instances
in recent weeks, I swallowed my feelings and decided to digest them instead of
expressing them, and thanked myself later for it. My feelings have been so volatile
lately that I can’t trust them to stay in place long enough for me to act on
them and not regret it. So what is to be done? Firstly, I might be using the terms
feelings wrongly, at least according to some people. Emotions are mental states
(sadness, jealousy, etc) while thoughts are interpretations of these mental
states, and feelings are physical manifestations of those mental states. There
is a lot of work out there urging people to pay attention to their “physical”
feelings instead of getting swept up in emotions and thoughts. I read a book not
that long ago titled Radical Acceptance, which has a central message of
accepting every feeling without resistance and observing it instead of judging
it. To pay attention to the parts of the body that feelings manifest as physical
sensations. My problem is all my feelings seem to emanate from the right lower abdomen. And, I am not sure how that
knowledge helps.
Saturday, January 24, 2026
Working ThroughVs Expressing Feelings
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