Some thoughts on feelings & bodies & other newsletter-y things.

Farewell November!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Advent is upon us! (And Advent devotionals are available!)

[Side note: why did no one point out to me that my last monthly newsletter (sent Oct 31) said it was the September edition?? (Do you like how I removed the subject from that sentence)?]

In this (NOVEMBER) newsletter you’ll get:

• 🤔 A thought I’m processing [on feelings]

• 💕 A thought I’m loving [on feelings & bodies]

• 🗳️ A poll [on Advent]

• 🔗 Some link love

• 📆 A full recap & links to this past month’s posts

🤔 A thought I’m processing [on feelings]

I have been facilitating a lot of discussion groups recently and each one kicks off with this feelings wheel. That means I spend an awful lot of time looking at this thing. And over time, some things have started to stand out to me.

First, I notice that “overwhelmed” appears on here twice: once under fearful/anxious and once under bad/stressed. The more I think about this the more I can feel the difference in those two kinds of “overwhelmed.” I know what the small, scared kind feels like vs the irritated, stressed kind.

I also now notice there are three different forms of helplessness on this guy. We’ve got “powerless” under sad/despair, we’ve got “helpless” under fearful/scared, and we’ve got “out of control” under bad/stressed. And can’t you sense those distinctions when you think about the sensation of being out of control?

The more we’re able to notice and label distinct emotions the easier it is for our unconscious brain to regulate said emotions. Not noticing and not labeling your feelings may help you be less conscious of them, but it actually increases the mental load for your brain and makes it harder for you to cope.

So here’s to noticing feelings, and the distinct ways they show up in all their diversity.

💕 A thought I’m loving [on feelings & bodies]

Sensing a theme? If you’ve talked to me at all in 2023, it’s likely I’ve talked about emotions or embodiment. These are the themes of the day. And you know who threads them together so beautifully? Hillary McBride.

“our ability to feel our feelings as they move as energy through our body with our ability to talk about what we feel. We can sit in therapy, tell sad stories, and talk about feeling sad without ever having the bodily experience of sadness. Psychology has historically focused too much on cognition and behavior while neglecting the process that underlies them both: emotion. But current neuroscientific research reveals emotion (also called affect in the scientific literature) as the central driver behind why we are the way we are, and how we develop and heal.2 We now know that most psychopathology, or mental illness, is the result of the inability to effectively regulate emotion.”

― Hillary L. McBride, The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection through Embodied Living

🗳️ A poll [on Advent]

I’m curious about Advent and how people engage with it. What do you think of when you hear the term Advent? (Also - Advent Guide is available here!)

Some link love

First, some links for things you can buy from me! (Just hit reply and tell me what you want more info on! )

• Gratitude Project + Thankful for you cards

• Advent Guides - (Pdf + we have 3 physical copies available! Just hit reply if you want one!)

• Cards - empathy, thank you, celebration cards ect..

  

Now, some more links I’m loving:

• An article on the evangelical bro code (that’s hurting women)

• A Human library

• My Roman Empire

• A clip on Cognitive Narrowing (black and white thinking)

• Most listened to song in Nov (🤦‍♀️ )

📆 What you missed in November

Below are some links to what I’ve shared this past month! (Please note that some of my messier thoughts and musings are behind a paywall. You can read more about why I do that here, and feel free to upgrade your subscription to access them.)

• Some thoughts on grief & gratitude

• Self-compassion, acceptance & validation - (otherwise known as...words christians seem to hate)

• Skincare products that work, what women are like, and one thing that is true of singleness...(FOR ME)

• November Goals - first things first