How To Reconnect With Your Emotions

Do you remember last month reading about the childhood emotional neglect that leads to us blocking our emotions? I also promised a post about how to reconnect with your emotions:)

As you know, we block emotions as a result of childhood emotional neglect. Here are some tips for those who think they may have been emotionally neglected as children.

Reconnect With Your Emotions To Experience The Joy Of Living

I feel privileged to share with you some of the ways I developed to help you to reconnect with your emotions:

1. Learning about my emotions:

• The first step is to accept yourself, including any of the feelings you might reconnect along the way, without judgement.
• Commit to a journey of self-discovery. Ask yourself several times during the day questions like this and record your honest answers just for yourself: What do I really want, dislike, don’t want? How come I am not upset (or upset) now? How come I do what I do, I say what I say? What fears, worries might I have? What vulnerable feelings could there be behind my anger? What am I allowing to make me angry, sad, hurt, etc?
• Listen carefully for your answers to emerge: The answers may not be readily available however by asking and tuning in to yourself you move towards opening the doors to your emotions.
• Use a method of recording so you have access to your answers to these questions.
• Strive to get in touch with what you are feeling at the moment you are feeling it, Allow yourself to make contact with your pain, sadness and anger.
• Don’t worry if you cannot give names to what you feel.
• Once you are in touch with your emotions the next step is to know what to do with them.

2. Accepting my needs and taking responsibility for them:

• Add another question to your list: Ask yourself what you need.
• Research the words associated with needs and emotions.
• Overcome guilt, lack of habit and not feeling deserving of getting your needs met.
• We all have emotional needs that need to be met independent of our childhood experiences.

3. I take small steps in learning to care gently for myself:

• Approach yourself with compassion.

4. I connect with others:

• Gradually experience how it is like to connect with others form a different place than you have been used to.
• Enjoy the new skills you learned.
• Experiment with empathy by responding emotionally when someone you care is sad or disappointed. Check with them if they felt understood by you.

Be Proactive For Yourself and Your Kids

Emotional Intelligence has been proven to be more valuable in all aspects of life than general intelligence. It’s extremely vital that you know how to name, use and manage emotions, as well as how to deal with it in others.

When we are neglected as children it is very important to recognise it, so that we can fill the gap in order to provide a healthier emotional environment for our kids.

You can take the Childhood Emotional Neglect Test here.

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