2. Denial. A second approach to dealing with emotion is the denial strategy. People often try to disassociate from their felings by saying, "It doesn't feel that bad." Meanwhile, they keep stroking the fire withing themselves by thinking about how horrible things are, or how somone has taken advantage of them,or how they do everything right but things still turn out wrong, and why does this always happen to them? In other words, they never change their focus or physiology, and they keep asking the same disempowering questions.
Experiencing an emotion and trying to pretend it's not there only creates more pain. Once again, ignoring the messages that your emotions are trying to give you will not make things better. If the message your emotions are trying to deliver is ignored, the emotions simply increase their amperage; they intensify until you finally pay attention. Trying to deny your emotions is not the solution. Understanding them and using them is the strategy you'll learn in this chapter.
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