A Transformational TOPIC : : CHALLENGE : : STRENGTH : : CONVERSATION (Number 4)
in the
Spiral Journey Resilience Map
Conversation Theme:
How can I/we learn to acknowledge, experience, accept and express all of my/our emotions? One will not go very far on the road of becoming-a-person / mending-the-world without encountering joy and sorrow, anger and fear, grief and guilt, and other strong feelings. Rather than becoming overwhelmed and/or withdrawing into numbness, we can learn gentle ways to understand, express and live more gracefully with our feelings, and learn ways to be comforting listeners to both ourselves and others. The attitudes of patience, truthfulness and compassion that we strive to embody in relation to other people, can work wonders when we apply them to our own hearts. Paradoxically, when we try to avoid our own troublesome or embarassing feelings, those very feelings we wanted to avoid can become our constant and unwelcome companions. (Holding back is holding on, but expressing feelings does not have to include attacking other people. See training material at www.NewConversations.net.)
Articles Introducing Theme:
Befriending Emotion — Book Chapter by John Welwood, PhD
Befriending Difficult Emotion — Article by Paul McFarland, FdA, BA (hons), MBACP
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Resources for explorations and conversations about this topic:
(If none are listed below, please suggest one using our CONTACT page.)
We welcome your SUGGESTIONS for additional references on this topic.
Series 4