Ep #28: Feeling Your Feelings in a Crisis

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen, episode number 28.

Welcome to Weight Loss for Successful Women, a podcast for women who are ready to break the diet cycle and end their struggle with weight for good. Here’s your host, Fortune 100 executive and Certified Life Coach, Shannan Christiansen.

Hello loves. Welcome back to the show. I am just so blessed that I get to spend some time with you ladies, and I am always so grateful that you’re listening. Today is part two of the series I’m doing on how to get through what is happening in our world without losing ourselves.

But before we get into the show, I want to give a listener shout-out to JFrog123. She wrote, “I really enjoy listening to this podcast. Shannan helps women understand how our thoughts cause our actions. In order to lose weight and keep it off for good, we need to understand how to listen to our bodies and put the diet mentality behind us. Since finding Shannan’s podcast and Facebook page, I feel empowered. For the first time, I truly believe I have the ability to reach and maintain a healthy weight.”

Thank you so much JFrog123. I love this review. So well put. I love all the reviews and they mean so much to me. So as this week has continued, honestly loves, it has felt crazy. Uncertain and sometimes like we’re in the middle of chaos.

We’re seeing things that we have not seen in our lifetimes, and it leaves us feeling like everything is out of control. So I’m doing a few extra things for my Jumpstarters this week and I was preparing for a Facebook Live on Saturday, and all of a sudden, loves, I felt so much emotion.

I felt this emotion bubble up and I started to cry. It was a release of all the feelings I had been feeling. I needed to feel those feelings. Pushing them down was just not an option. I wanted to keep telling myself that everything was going to be okay, that everything will be fine, that this too shall pass.

But loves, I needed to feel the negative emotion too. I needed to feel the fear of it. Feeling our feelings right now is so important because if we don’t, we’ll eat our way through this. I have had lots of urges this past week for things like cheesecake and Chunk cookies. Now ladies, if you live in Arizona, don’t listen because I’m going to tell you something.

In Arizona, there is a cookie delivery service that will deliver hot fresh baked chocolate chip cookies to your door. Yes, I do think it’s a little criminal. No I’m just kidding. It’s not. But seriously, I’ve had urges this week that I’ve not had because of the stress and emotions I have been feeling. I had to cry, feel the fear, and feel the uncomfortableness of not knowing.

We must feel the negative feelings right now, even though we don’t want to. We would rather eat a pan of Texas sheet cake or a warm chocolate cookie. I want to explain the difference between feeling a negative feeling and indulging in a negative feeling.

When we indulge in our feelings, we usually buffer. We start to think thoughts like, “The world is ending, I might as well eat this,” or, “I deserve the cupcake because of what I’m feeling.” Indulging and hanging out for long periods of time in negative emotions, it just does not help us. When we indulge in negative feelings for long periods of time, we’re just stuck in it. We feel bad. We feel out of control. And then loves, we eat.

Feeling a feeling is the way that I have found to help me move to a different feeling. So here is how to feel a feeling. First love, take a deep breath and then name the feeling. Is it frustration? Is it fear? Is it irritation? Is it anger? And then look for the thought that’s causing it.

And then love, just feel the feeling in your body. What does it feel like? How does it show up in your body? Is your face flush? Is your heart racing? Are your hands clenched? How does it feel in that body of yours? And then just allow all of those vibrations in your body. Be uncomfortable. Let it pass through your entire body and then just relax into it.

All while you’re focusing on your breath. Do this as many times as you need until you’re ready to release the thought causing the feeling. This practice will help you feel the feeling instead of trying to resist it or buffer. Buffering is when we overeat or we do something that has a negative consequence instead of just feeling our feelings.

Feelings, love, they last about 90 seconds. I know that you’re feeling a range of emotions during this time, but love, I got you. Make sure you join my private Facebook group, Weight Loss for Successful Women. I’m doing a bonus Facebook Live in it every week. So I’m doing two Facebook Lives every week in that group.

You can get the link to join in the show notes and you can find the show notes at bflycoaching.com/28. And also, if you’re one of my Jumpstarters and you’re listening, make sure that you come to the coaching calls. I am doing a bonus coaching call each week. We’re doing a book club. We’re doing tons of fun things, my Jumpstarters, so make sure that you’re watching that private Facebook page too.

So the transformational questions for the week are what feelings have you been pushing down? Have you been avoiding, resisting feelings? Or are you buffering this week? I do believe that this will pass and that we will be better because of it. Things will come out of this that will make us better. Humans are amazing.

We have a spirit that is tough, kind, gentle, and loving. So take a deep breath with me loves and next week, I’ll continue with part three of this series. And I’m just sending so much love to you and your families. Bye for now, love.

If you love this work and want to go deeper, take my free course. You can learn more about it at bflycoaching.com/free-course. Bye for now, loves.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Weight Loss for Successful Women. If you love what you heard today and want to learn more, come over to bflycoaching.com. That’s B – F – L – Y coaching dot com. See you next week!