Healing with Feeling

Healing Through Feeling

Stress has become an all-too-common burden in today’s fast-paced, high-pressure world. The weight of responsibility, coupled with a perceived inability to manage it, often leads to anxiety and emotional strain. In an attempt to cope, many turn to self-medication, whether through drugs, alcohol, excessive work, food, or gambling. Yet these outlets rarely bring lasting relief. Instead, they exacerbate the very problems they are meant to solve, leading to cycles of addiction, weight fluctuations, high blood pressure, and mental distress.

At the heart of these struggles lie unfelt feelings, waiting to be acknowledged. When suppressed, they drive self-sabotage, emerging in destructive ways until they’re finally given space to be felt.

This is why feeling can be healing:

Optimistic people may find it easy to think positively, speak positively, or even feel joy in certain moments, say excitement for a holiday, joy at the birth of a child, anticipation for a new job.

But.

All feelings, whether uplifting or painful, simply want to be felt. Like a jack-in-the-box, emotions that are repeatedly pushed down will inevitably spring back to the surface. The more I ignore them, the more persistently they return. Negative feelings do not disappear when avoided, they intensify.

The healing solution? Feel your feelings.

I’ve found two simple but powerful ways to reduce stress and anxiety:

The first is to acknowledge my feelings:

• Whenever I feel uneasy, afraid, or stressed, I recognize it as my instincts communicating with me.
• If I ignore these feelings, they don’t vanish—they retreat underground, only to resurface later in the form of mental, emotional, and even physical distress.
• Suppressed emotions can manifest as tremors beneath the surface—small eruptions, or full-blown crises. The more I repress them, the stronger they demand attention.

The second is to seek support when necessary:

• If I feel too fragile to face my emotions alone, I enlist the help of someone wiser or qualified to guide me—a counselor, a medical professional, or a trusted friend.
• Having a witness to my experience provides both comfort and perspective, allowing me to process feelings without becoming overwhelmed.

When emotions remain ignored, life creates situations to force them into awareness. If a negative pattern keeps repeating, it often signals that my subconscious is manifesting experiences designed to help me confront what I have been avoiding.

For example:

• If I ignore feelings of pressure or anxiety, I will continue attracting people, events, and experiences that make me feel even more pressured and anxious.
• My subconscious isn’t working against me—it’s attempting to help me create the life I truly need by bringing unresolved emotions to the surface.

The solution? Feel my feelings. I must go through the motion of emotion because feeling is healing.

At the start of each day, and whenever necessary throughout the day, I take time to sit with the feelings I don’t want to feel. Here’s how I do it:

1. I breathe in deeply, then exhale fully, releasing tension.
2. I repeat this as needed, finding my own rhythm rather than rushing.
3. I allow my feelings to rise to the surface—anger, pain, frustration—without pushing them away.
4. As I sit with them, they begin to dissipate.

When I make a habit of acknowledging and releasing my feelings, I no longer attract the same negative situations that once plagued me. Stress, pressure, and overwhelm diminish. By allowing myself to truly feel, I break the cycle, and I heal.

This practice is fast, effective, and deeply relieving. Over time, old cycles of self-sabotage begin to crumble. The same negative patterns lose their hold and eventually stop repeating altogether.