Creating the Shift Back to Feeling Empowered & In Control of Your Experience
This past week, I came across a post on social media that confirmed something I had been feeling. It went a little something like this:
“We’re living in a painfully polarizing era. It’s no longer just a. Month, or a year...it’s an era of constant drama. It’s not sustainable, centered or balance…I am doing my best to protect my own thoughts, values, and mental health in the process…there’s a lot to advocate for right now, but if you don’t care for your own needs, how could you gain the energy and endurance to care for others?”
Learning how to deal with not only the ups and down of life, but of world & national events, was a huge driver in why I became a life coach.
I didn’t want my emotions to be controlled by external events; I wanted to understand how to feel empowered no matter what, and how to keep going to create the change I wanted to see, both in my life and the world.
And to do just that, here’s the process I follow:
#1: Feel What You Need to Feel & Discover the Underlying Meaning
Feeling Pissed, angry, sad, frustrated, disappointed, disempowered? — Feel what you need to feel, then get curious. Ask “what do I believe is true that is making me feel this way? What picture do I have in my head that is causing me to feel this way”
Feelings are provoked by the meaning we give to something. Think about it…a policy change can make one person feel exuberant and another person feel enraged, so what’s the difference? The meaning that the individuals are giving to something.
If you are feeling disempowered by something and are wanting to shift back to feeling empowered AF, discover the underlying belief/meaning you’re giving to something.
#2: Decide on a New Feeling and Create a New Meaning
All the emotions I mentioned above aren’t “bad”— they simply are letting us know where our thoughts & beliefs are.
But they can be tricky to feel on a chronic basis because they can drive up stress, which can cause of host of issues; so for the sake of keeping our bodies and mind healthy and balance, we can choose to feel better by creating a new meaning.
I don’t consider this ‘bypassing’ an issue or emotion. At this point, we’ve felt what we needed to feel and got curious about the underlying belief. And that emotion may poke its head up from time to time, but we go back to an empowering meaning/belief. Next, decide how you want to feel, the ‘shift’ you’d like to make from where you are to where you want to be (i.e happy, empowered, free, elated, etc).
Once you’ve decided how you want to feel instead, come up with a new meaning, belief or way of seeing something that connects to that emotion; What’s a new way of looking at something that you haven’t considered before? This is where you get to get creative and find the opportunity in the adversity.
#3 Create a New Vision Based on the New Meaning
Once you’ve decided on how you want to feel, and you’ve created a new meaning for whatever it is that’s going on in your life or the world, now’s the time to create a vision of what you’d like to see or experience.
Our minds are so powerful and give us creative ideas and solutions, motivation to take inspired action, etc, so we want to create a vivid image, as if it’s something we’re experiencing right before our eyes or as if it’s already a memory.
The purpose of this is to communicate with our subconscious mind what we want to experience, and it will take it as a command and look for opportunities and give ideas on action to take to make it apart of your reality experience.
#4 Continue to Bring Awareness to How You’re Feeling
If you notice emotions lowering at any time, it’s time to get curious again. And as you need it, you can always return to what you choose to feel, believe and envision instead.
This has been the process I’ve cultivated over the past 6 years, and is how I stay in control of my thoughts & emotions.
I’ve noticed when I’ve stayed rigid in one way of thinking, my ability to change my emotions is rigid too and feel ‘stuck’. But if I remain flexible and stay open to choosing to see things in a new way, choosing new beliefs/meanings that reinforce the feelings I want to feel, I feel free, empowered and able to take the inspired action I need to take.
I hope this helps. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below, and what other strategies you like to use to process emotions and create a shift.
Love you so much!
