Overview
Many of us will try anything to get away from hard feelings. Food, shopping, alcohol, screens… There is an endless list of distractions and addictions we use to try to avoid our emotions. But the keyword here is “try,” and as much as we might resist the tough feelings, it never really works.
Today on The Doctor’s Farmacy, I’m thrilled to talk about the power of sitting with unpleasant feelings with my guest Dr. Joan Rosenberg. Dr. Rosenberg and I get right into the messiness of human emotion, as she explains the physiology of unpleasant feelings. It’s important to realize that our biological stress response works the same for a made-up event in our minds as a real one that has actually occurred.
Avoiding hard emotions only makes them louder. We discuss how expressing our thoughts and feelings, whether it’s through journaling or conversation, helps us metabolize them and move forward. Dr. Rosenberg breaks down the importance of speaking up and why it’s the key to confidence and authenticity. Grief, trauma, and anxiety are some of the other important topics that we touch on throughout this episode. I share some of my personal experiences in processing life’s most difficult experiences and Dr. Rosenberg explains which practices support the healing process. To feel is to be human. We can all learn how to make the process easier on ourselves with the help of Dr. Rosenberg.