Being “Too Emotional” at Work

I've worried about being emotional before. And about feeling like I can't control it - the ups, the downs. At those times, it felt like the emotion was a part of me, defining me.

But I now see that when I view an emotion as "a part of me," what I actually do is attach myself to the emotion. I collapse who I am into the single instance of the feeling, in that moment, at that time. So I give up my own control by confining myself to the emotion itself. This isn't wrong or right or good or bad, but it does explain why I've like I am emotional (instead of just noticing when I am feeling an emotion).

So now instead, I like to view like this.

I'm having an emotion.

It's like having an ice cream sundae, a messy hair day, or an emotional wave.

It's not me. It's just something I've noticed. Something I've focused on. Something to experience - not to own.

It helps me to realize the sensation of the emotion, without making it all of me.

It also allows me to accept that I can't always control the emotional sensations in my body - just like I can't control how the hot fudge drapes over the ice cream in my sundae. But it does let me to see it.

And to live, even in the midst of an emotion.

So sometimes I'll still take a pause, when the emotions are really big. Other times, I'll notice it there, under the surface. I don't push it away. But I don't attach to it either. This is the difference between EXPERIENCING the emotion and RESISTING or ATTACHING to the emotion.

Let's stop owning the sensation (unless we want to), and instead let ourselves experience them.