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Numbing, avoiding, and distracting from emotions is the number one concern of all my clients.  This is also the hardest lesson to learn. If you are wondering if you do this, let me be the first to say yes, you do!  I say that confidently because it is normal human behavior we all engage in. Please don’t worry though because it is also something that you can change! Let’s first understand how it shows up.   

Numbing, avoiding, and distracting from emotions is something we do when we are not living mindfully.  It is a negative coping mechanism that we use because emotional pain is real and we as human beings do not like to face it.  On a deeper level, we numb, avoid, and distract because we do not believe we are capable of handling our emotions.  We are scared.

This can take the form of overeating, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, binging on Netflix/Hulu, playing Candy Crush on your phone, self-injurious behavior, Snap Chatting every 5 minutes, constantly checking Facebook, judging yourself, judging others, constant planning/worrying about every worst case scenario A-Z, etc. 

Described a different way, you are physically here in the world, but mentally your mind is elsewhere. You are either dwelling on the past, worrying about the future, or totally oblivious of it all. I tend to think of this as running on autopilot.  You are everywhere else besides the present moment. 

The present moment is where we are able to experience our emotions and truly know how to manage them in order to grow and become happier.  I encourage you to go back and read my post titled “If you resist, it will Persist.” This provides another perspective on managing emotions.

Emotions are nothing to be afraid of. They manifest as physical sensations in our bodies and when we allow them to be present, they pass through, and no longer have control over us!