Feeling my feelings

plus some joyful moments from February to remember the good

I’ve been having a lot of feelings lately: frustration, anger, resentment, disgust, the works. There are things happening in my life that I don’t have control over and I’ve been a bit of a grouch about it.

We recently watched Pixar’s Elemental (we loved it) and a key part of the storyline is the main character Ember learning to listen to her anger. Her anger is trying to tell her something.

I’m pretty sure I know what my feelings are trying to tell me. I need to make some big, long overdue changes in my life. But it’s scary, it will take time, and I’d much rather the changes happen painlessly and instantly. Alas!

For now, I’m left to feel my feelings.

drawing my feelings

In the thick of my feelings yesterday, I decided to revisit a practice for feeling your feelings that I came up with for a grad school project. It was meant for an app for kids (and adults) that invites you to imagine your feelings as little creatures and then take care of them with suggested coping methods. Basically like Tamagotchi, but for your feelings. (Yes, I wish it existed in real life and yes, it was heavily inspired by my younger self’s love for real and virtual pets.)

So with this practice in mind, I imagined what my feeling would look like and then I drew it. I think it might be the best thing I’ve ever drawn.

I CAN’T HANDLE IT. Poor fella looks like it could use some love!

After the glorious catharsis of drawing my feeling as a hilarious little creature, I asked myself how my feeling needed to be taken care of. I brainstormed a few ideas:

• Cuddle my dog

• Take a shower

• Write about it

• Be honest about my feelings

• Don’t take it out on Freddy

I did some of these things, plus some others: cry, lie face down on the floor, lie face down on my bed with a pillow over my head, go for a walk, eat a ginormous cookie, talk to our neighbor, needlepoint (a new hobby), read some inspiring words, request a spontaneous Chipotle dinner to get out of the house, more needlepoint, and so on and so forth. Lying face down on the floor was a particular winner.

The good news is I’m feeling less crappy now. The frustrating situation is still there, but I feel better equipped to face another day. And hopefully I’ll make some progress towards the more aligned direction that my feelings are trying to tell me about.

Thanks, feelings.

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goodies

I’m trying to remind myself that despite feeling crummy a lot of this month, there have been lots of moments of joy too. And as

Brad Montague

says, we create a more joyful world by finding joy and sharing it. So here are some joyful moments from the month:

Stuffing ourselves for Lunar New Year (this is at Full Kee in RVA)!

Going through the Krispy Kreme drive thru for hot donuts for the first time

Monet being Monet (plus celebrating her 3rd birthday)

Freddy got us a Sculpd Pottery Kit for Valentine’s Day and whipped out this little sculpture of Monet (I made a much less impressive toothbrush holder)

Watching our plants grow (c/o our dear neighbor who gave us cuttings!)

Celebrating Freddy’s birthday with lots of delicious food (this is at Lost Letter in RVA)

Playing Worms Armageddon, a very silly game I played growing up on the Nintendo 64

Seeing the first signs of spring!!!

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I’d love to know

What are some of your go-to coping methods for feeling your feelings? How has February been for you? What’s a joyful moment you’ve had recently?

Until next time,

Maryn (is here)