the heart as it is | courage • grief • beauty

The question for today from Onsite is: “How connected do you feel to your emotions on a daily basis?”

My short answer is that I have been getting a lot better at being in tune with my emotions, often with the help of my bodily sensations, too. It’s easy to tell when I’m happy, sad, angry, disappointed, excited, and in awe. Growing up however, I could not for the life of me tell when I was stressed or when I was feeling a lot of shame. Any negative emotion was too scary for me to explore and reflect on, and it just made me overall a not self-aware person, moving through life on autopilot. My body is the one that has been giving my signs that I am feeling negative emotions, usually manifesting as certain kinds of bodily sensations or even rashes.

On a daily basis, I confess I don’t usually take the time to check in with how I am doing emotionally, as I undoubtedly experience emotions at different times of the day. But perhaps I can begin with just checking in with my emotions and how I’m feeling at least once a day.