71. Processing your feelings

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Hello darling heart and welcome to the Drink Less live better podcast.

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This is the podcast that helps you to see that drinking less doesn't need to be stressful, lonely, or boring.

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I'm your host, Sarah Williamson, and I decided to have a year alcohol free as a little life experiment and haven't looked back.

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With my experience and training, I now help other people with their alcohol free or drink less adventures.

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You can find out more and sign up to my 5 day drink less challenge at drink less live better dot com.

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I'm here to tell you that you can relax, connect, and have fun without alcohol in your life.

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Join me here each week to find out how.

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Today we're going to talk about the subject of processing our feelings.

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One of the first things I'd like you to do is have a look at the feelings wheel.

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You can either Google the feelings wheel and you will find, if you use Google images, that there are thousands of beautifully colored circles that you can use.

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You can find one that suits you and either look at it on the screen or print it off for easy reference.

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I will also put a copy of the feelings wheel in the show notes and you can have a look and download that today if that's helpful for you.

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The feelings wheel is a really useful tool for helping to label your feelings, to help you get closer to the emotion that

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you might be experiencing in a particular moment.

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One of the examples that I give from my early sobriety was that I spent a lot of time feeling angry, and I used the word angry

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because I wasn't really quite sure what it was that I was feeling, and upon closer examination of my feelings I found that

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the feeling I was really experiencing was actually one around frustration.

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So please go to that feelings wheel, have a look at it, see if it's useful.

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If it's useful, use it, and if it's not, you can put it to one side because, you know, there are lots of different tools and

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modalities that I talk about on this podcast that you will find helpful at another time.

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So if you have the feelings wheel in front of you and you have some idea about some of the emotions, the feelings, the thoughts

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that you are having at the moment and the that are coming from those thoughts, feelings that you're having.

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Let's break this down into mind, body and soul today.

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Let's have a look at some of the ideas that might be helpful for your mind.

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So first up to mention is writing it down, writing about your your feelings and emotions either in a journal, in a notebook,

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perhaps just on a scrap of paper.

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Anything that makes that mind hand connection, allowing those feelings out onto a piece of paper, often is a really good starting

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point for sorting out what is going on inside your head. I love to doodle.

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I like scrawling around the side of the things that I'm writing down in any given moment or something creative. How about drawing, painting, sewing, knitting?

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The act of our hands being busy often brings a bit of space and clarity in our mind where we can start to unravel some of the stuff that's going in.

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And of course I'm likely to talk about talking.

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Have therapy, CBT, EMDR, whatever you've tried before that has worked or try something new if you've never tried it before.

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A really good listening friend, somebody who can hear you speak about what is on your mind and not make any judgments. That's mind. Let's talk about body next.

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Have you ever stopped and thought about where in your body you feel particular emotions?

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I know for me that angry is a feeling that I feel in my chest, it's a contracted feeling.

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It's the opposite of an expansive feeling.

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My shoulders round, my head comes down, my body feels stiff and the opposite of soft and easy to move.

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I notice where the feeling in my body is and I notice then that I might be able to make some sort of movement to start to release that feeling. What about crying or laughing?

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Either if you can do those things spontaneously related to the feeling then fabulous, or if you need to watch a really sad

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movie or perhaps a really happy movie then go ahead and do that. And what about your soul?

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What are the things that you can do that feel good for your soul to start to sift through your emotions? Meditate, Listen to music? Breathwork?

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Would any of these feel good to you?

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If they do, then start to use them and carry on using them if they feel fabulous, and just put them down gently to one side if they don't.

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After trying some of these activities, how do you feel? Do you feel emotionally lighter? Mentally clearer?

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Perhaps you feel more relaxed or something else entirely.

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And don't forget that any emotional discomfort you had before might take a little while to process, it might not be a really quick fix.

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I know that I spent many years escaping, denying, trying to push down, trying to tolerate, trying to control the feelings

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and emotions that were uncomfortable for me, and coming to a place of acceptance really took quite a while.

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I hope some of this has been useful for you today. Thank you so much for listening. Come back again next week.

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Check out the show notes on this podcast or any other episode.

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You'll find details about the drink less, live better 2023 retreat.

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You'll see the link to a hidden podcast episode to help you with your 5 PM cravings, and you'll be able to read about my one to one coaching program.

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I'd love it if you could follow and download the podcast, and if you feel inclined, leave a review. That would be lovely.

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Thank you, and PS, I believe in you.