A course to help you discover the genius in your anxiety! 5-week course starting Monday, May 22 at Empathy Academy online Most of us have been taught to feel ashamed about or afraid of our anxiety, or to treat it as a sign of weakness or trouble. Most people confuse anxiety with its friend panic, and some people even talk about anxiety as an epidemic, … Read More
So, you’re depressed. What’s next? We all experience depression for many reasons, and there are plenty of situations that are in and of themselves depressing — such as conflicts, difficulties, injustice, illness, loss, and upheaval. These things should evoke some depression. In the face of troubles, something in us should drop, lose energy, and experience a sense of despair or hopelessness every now and then. To … Read More
Situational depression arises when some aspect of your life is unworkable or dysfunctional; this emotion stops you for a vital reason, and there are many ways to support yourself when depression is present. Depression has a vital message for you When we looked at the gifts of sadness, I wrote about what I call the emotional attribution mistake that I see with many emotions — which is … Read More
Grieving and the importance of ritual Grief is a powerful emotion that can easily overwhelm people, which is why all cultures have sacred grief rituals. Healing rituals can help us process change, transitions, shock, and loss — yet in our modern world, many of us have lost our vital connections to the ritual traditions that help us create sacred space for the incredible shock of death … Read More
Grief is a beautiful, languid, and powerful emotion that is very different from sadness. Sadness arises when you’re holding on to something that isn’t working anyway; sadness arises to help you relax and let go. Grief is different: grief arises when something is lost irretrievably, or when a death occurs – be it actual death, or the death of important situations, ideas, or relationships. Grief does not simply … Read More
Your sadness can help you relieve tension Sadness is a healing emotion that helps you let go of things that aren’t working anyway. If you can learn to relax and let go, you can connect to the healing heart of sadness. Sadly, many of us don’t to approach sadness in this way, and when it arises, we tend to lose our way. So let’s get comfortable … Read More
SADNESS: The Water Bearer GIFTS: Release ~ Fluidity ~ Grounding ~ Relaxation ~ Rejuvenation WHAT YOUR SADNESS DOES: Sadness arises when it’s time to let go of something that isn’t working anyway. WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE: Let go. If you can truly let go, relaxation and rejuvenation will follow. THE INTERNAL QUESTIONS: What must be released? What must be rejuvenated? Sadness is a wonderful emotion … Read More
In the 2023 update of The Language of Emotions, I separated panic into two categories: immediate panic and frozen panic. It’s so important to understand the difference between them, because many people don’t know that frozen panic contains the energy we need to heal from past traumas. Frozen Panic: The Healing Witness GIFTS: Healing from past traumas ~ Freedom from cycling patterns ~ Completion of unfinished … Read More
Panic is an essential survival emotion that arises in response to a direct threat to your physical life. Panic is related to fear, but while fear is an instinctual and intuitive emotion that arises in response to change, novelty, and possible physical hazards, panic arises when you actually need to save your own life. The ingenious actions you can take in response to your fear number … Read More
Envy (and its partner jealousy) are treated badly in general, but envy is actually listed as one of the seven deadly sins in the Catholic tradition. We could say that the early Catholics meant to warn people against acting aggressively with their envy, but still, they called out a necessary human emotion as a sin. That’s not helpful. Your envy is a vital social emotion that … Read More