Video Length: 06:11

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Welcome to video 15 in our challenge series! This challenge is created to help you make the space in your life to begin your journey to Empty Nest Success. Don't hesitate to log in and ask questions in the comment section!

💬 Comments: scroll down below the transcript section. ⬇️

📓 Journal Prompt (optional):

Reflect on a strong emotion and a negative thought you experienced recently. Can you identify where they came from?

Did you feel as if you could lean into the emotion?

Are your emotions hiding in your "basement"?

📓 Journal quotes to consider:

"Many of us were told over the years to hide our strong emotions. Statements like these don't teach us how to process or pay attention to our emotions."

"Maybe it is worth having that strong emotion and leaning into it."

🧰 Add a Toolbox Item:

Was there something today that brought you joy/made you laugh/got your creative juices going? If not, take a look at this list for some ideas of things you may want to try in the future.

💁‍♀️Resources:

• Empty Nest Prep podcast episodes
• Episode 157: Removing the Word "work" from our vocabulary
• C.E.O. Toolbox podcast episode list
• Free Companion Workbooks Video & Access (PDF/Google Sheet)
• Supercharge your results with empty nest private coaching!
• Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts | Podcast in this space

📃 Full Transcript

Beautiful soul and amazing human, you have made it halfway through the challenge! Ah, so excited. [giggles] We're continuing on the analogy, we're going to talk a little more about your emotions today. Let's watch the video and then I will pop back here.

00:20 Today's topic is consciously processing your emotions. Let's face it, many of us were told over the years to hide our strong emotions. Have you heard these: "Cheer up," "You have nothing to be angry about," "Oh I'll give you something to cry about." Statements like these don't teach us how to process or pay attention to our emotions. I imagine this in our ever-expanding analogy, as we have been trained to take any thought box delivery with a strong emotion and toss it in the basement with all the other strong emotions. I encourage you to become conscious of your emotions. As you learn to sift through your emotions, pay attention to how they feel in your body, and decide what to do with them. Upon further inspection, you may find it is worth having that strong emotion or maybe not so much. Don't forget that you are amazing.

01:14 We all remember our parents going, "hey, you know what, I feel sad, and I'm going to cry. But it's okay. Because sometimes I just need to cry and let it out. I'm sad about something, I'm strong enough to get through it. And it's going to be fine." Or, "I'm really angry about this thing. But it wasn't your fault. Just processing through my own anger. I need a minute. I'm gonna do that. And I'll be right back."

No? [giggles]

For most of us, that was not our reality. The reality was, "What are you being sad about? Why are you angry, you shouldn't be angry." So we've been taught to take our emotions and shove them into the basement. I'd like to encourage you that the emotions are nothing to be afraid of. Yes, we may have been taught this. But taking a look at the emotions, considering why the emotions are there and what is raising them in us. If our protector is on high alert for everything, if we jump back a few videos and think about our protector on high alert for everything. It has a thought delivery that is my delivery arrived and the sneakers are the wrong color. And that has a really high level of emotion because everything's on high delivery, and it has the same level of emotion as if something that's way more serious. Because it's this baseline of stuff. And we're we're taking those thought-box deliveries, we're shoving them in the basement. So if you think about it, every time that something comes through with a low level of that emotion and we toss it down, it's almost like there's a rumbling of all those similar emotions just kind of vibrating because they haven't been processed/cleaned up/ dealt with. Now it doesn't mean that you need to dive in and reevaluate all of your past emotions or anything. No, I mean, you can if that's what you feel led to do.

03:25 But what it does mean is pay attention to your emotions and consider that, yeah, maybe you just need to be sad. And maybe you can share that with your loved ones and say, "It's okay that I'm sad - makes sense. This is a bittersweet time for me. If we look at the Empty Nest in particular, I am really excited for you but I'm also sad because I like having you around. And we've built this relationship that I'm really proud of you. So, I'll miss you and I'm gonna have sad moments but it's gonna be okay."

Not only are you gifting yourself with the ability to take that thought-box delivery, open it up look at it, consider it and process through and decide where you want to put it, but you're also showing your children and loved ones what emotions look like - that it's okay to have them and this is healthy. So see where this lands for you. Consider everything and see what emotions are being brought up just by this video. Are you afraid to even look at the the boxes? It's okay. This takes time. You are so worth the investment that you're doing right now. It's easy to begin to see the emotions and not want to deal with them but it also can become fun and clearing and you may, very well, be like most people who do this investment work and this journey and they discover that, oh, I probably didn't need to be quite as angry over that thing as I wanted to. But this other thing oh yeah, really wanted to be angry about that, or sad or excited. All the things this is really, really meaty. I keep saying that word it seems to resonate with me right now. [giggles] really meaty work, the word work does it make you feel like or, I'm excited to do the work then use the word work. There's more on that in our last video in the resources I talk about why I don't want to use the word work and you know what, I'll put it under this one too. In case you missed it. Enjoy it. Enjoy digging into this and considering what would your life look like if you felt your emotions and you weren't afraid to feel them? Super fun. See you next time. You are amazing.