Being Emotional vs. Processing Emotions

Do you know the difference? Can you tell the difference when you’re feeling an emotion and whether you’ve processed it or are just reacting?

I was recently asked to make a post about the difference between processing emotions and feeling them

This was prompted after I sent out a text to my free text list about facing emotions

They asked me “What about being too emotional in a way that it's debilitating, giving negative thoughts/emotions too. How can we be healthy with those kinds of emotions?” To which I replied that the two are different

I loved that they asked me to make this post after because I do hope it brings some insight into the differences

It can be very easy to fall into catastrophic thinking, anxiety, overwhelm, outburst of emotions, and avoidance among other reactions

If you’re wondering about the 3rd bullet on the right side of this infographic, consider messaging me and I’ll send you the link to the video I did on the DBT skill of self-validation

While processing emotions can be uncomfortable at times or even feel foreign (sometimes even positive emotions can feel strange to people to let themselves fully embrace)

But processing and learning from the emotion is where we gain so much insight for ourselves to apply to our life!

Emotions serve a powerful purpose in helping us know what to move towards or away from

Attuning our focus and choosing to go into them frees us up to have more insight moving forward when it comes to decision making or handling situations

Of course, we can’t always trust our first thought or solution so it’s important to question or challenge ourselves to think about other possible thought or behavior responses

But if I can leave you with anything for now it would just be that emotions are healthy to feel and they are just responses to stimuli

We have the opportunity to make meaning of them to support our future experiences & avoid getting stuck

If you’re looking for even more support with emotional health, consider joining my #BUILDMORETHANJUSTABODYcommunity