What is your relationship with your emotions?

Dernière mise à jour de l'article le 18 November 2024

I remember when I first started working (and it was a very long time ago despite my looks 😁 ), I didn’t want to show my true emotions at work.

I thought that this part of me, the emotions, had no place and put me in a position of weakness.

For me, it was THE CHALLENGE to overcome in order to succeed: to M.A.Î.T.R.I.S.E.R my emotions and in particular to show that everything was still fine. So I was always smiling.

Everything was always fine… even when it wasn’t.

Even when I wanted to scream.

Even when I wanted to cry.

Even when my body was telling me something was wrong… everything was fine.

Well yes, if my head had decided that everything was fine, then my heart had to follow – without flinching.

Even though deep down we know it doesn’t work like that…

I associated this ‘control’ of my emotions, or rather this denial of their existence, with a force.

I didn’t want to show anything or let anything show(nowadays, if you know me personally, you’ll know that’s not really the case any more 😁).

In reality – and it was many years later that I realised this, which is why I changed my point of view on emotions – I was hiding one of my driving forces.

Yes, contrary to what you might think, our emotions are not there to annoy us.

On the contrary.

They exist for a reason, for a specific purpose. They carry a message that goes through our brain, our heart and our body.

The problem is that we’ve forgotten the key. We no longer know how to decode this message, how to interpret it, how to use it.

If you’ve ever been in denial about your emotions and would like to reconcile yourself with them, here’s a little exercise to get you started:

At the end of the day, give yourself 5 minutes to reflect on the day as it draws to a close.

Try to identify two events where you felt a strong emotion – whatever it was.

And ask yourself these questions:

• What emotion did you feel? Can you name it precisely?
• Why did you feel this emotion? What was the hidden message behind this emotion?

And if, like me, you’ve been at war with your emotions for a (very) long time, I suggest you listen to these episodes of the podcast Le Quart d’Heure d’Inspir’Action where I tackle this subject (episodes 67 to 77, yes, that’s a lot 😁 ):

• E067 – What is an emotion and what is it used for?
• E068 – Stop talking about negative emotions!
• E069 – What is the emotion of fear?
• E070 & E071 – Emotional intelligence skills
• E072 – How do you manage the emotion of anger?
• E073 – Substitute emotions and mixed emotions
• E074 – Psychological stamps and elastic emotions
• E075 – What is the hidden message behind the emotion of sadness?
• E076 – What role do emotions play in business?
• E077 – Joy, an emotion of sharing and alignment

Take care of yourself ✨