Emotions in the Pandemmic
Lighthouse meets every other Wednesday evening from 8:30-9:30 pm (CST). If you haven’t joined us before, we invite you to come and sit awhile with this beautiful group of parents. As a community, we gather to celebrate the highs and support each other through the challenges. This is a conversation with other parents who understand what you are experiencing. Grab your favorite beverage join us. This is a program for parents with students attending Islands of Brilliance programming. Register here.
Last night we spent some time talking about emotions. All of us are experiencing these times in different ways. Some of us are completely isolated, some of us (or our family members) need to go out into the community for work. Many of us are feeling upset about the ways our daily lives have had to change. Loneliness, anxiety, sadness, despair, anger…we are feeling them, our kids are feeling them. And at times, the feelings can be overwhelming. Even more complicated, rarely are our emotions perfectly aligned with the emotions of the people we are sharing our space with!
Take a moment, take a few breaths, and create a space where it is ok to talk about, feel, and acknowledge our emotions. As a society, we often suppress our feelings…we’re told to hold back the tears, keep your guard up, wear that mask of “everything’s fine” until you’re alone. Right now, we need to let each other know that we’re all in this together, that we are all feeling a lot of big feels in a lot of big ways.
Personally, I’ve found that when I try to hold back my emotions and keep them bottled up, that’s when they do become overwhelming. It’s like a bottle of seltzer water, slowly being shaken…the pressure builds…until finally the cap is loosened and then it explodes out. When I can create a safe space to feel my emotions, acknowledging them in the moment, I am able to "feel the feels" and move through them…watching them float by on a gently moving stream.
On a recent podcast, Brené Brown spoke with Marc Brackett, author of the book "Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive." I thought the idea of giving ourselves and our kids permission to feel was such a simple, but often difficult thing to do. I am excited to check out the book and learn more about this topic. In the book, Brackett gives “a blueprint for understanding our emotions and using them wisely so that they help, rather than hinder our success and well-being. The core of his approach is a legacy from his childhood, from an astute uncle who gave him permission to feel.”
One more resource I am excited to share with all of you was brought to our attention by Hope Lloyd. The Compassion Resilience Toolkit is a great place to visit and learn a little bit more about many of the topics we’ve discussed over the past three weeks: Stages of Fatigue and Self Compassion, Setting Expectations, Mindfulness, Stress Awareness, and more. There are videos and quick read PDFs on multiple topics for staying resilient during this time.
If you come across other resources, ideas, or topics you’d like to share with the group please pass them along! We can discuss them and share with each other each week!
Peace and Love,
Matt and all of us at Islands of Brilliance
Banner Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
