Episode Transcript
Healthy ways to express emotions are crucial in order to experience a well balanced and healthy life. If you’ve ever experienced an unexpected outburst of emotion, you may need some tools to help identify and accept emotions you’re experiencing. Today, I want to share a tool and suggestions on how to do just that. Welcome to Making Friends With Depression.
Hello friends, and welcome back to another edition of Making Friends with Depression. I am your host, Charles Minguez.
Quickly at the top of the show, I’d like to take care of some housekeeping. Hey, listen. If you enjoy the show, please rate and review it on whatever podcast platform you listen on. It really helps drive the show up the charts.
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You can find links for the merch store, Patreon, etc., in the show notes and over at Making Friends With Depression dot com.
Before we dive into the show, I like to share some background information, so listeners know why I’m doing this and where I’m coming from.
My History With Depression and Mindfulness
I’ve lived most of my life with major depression and schizoaffective disorder. I was first diagnosed at 13, and I’m now in my 40’s. So, mental illness and wellness have been a big part of my life.
I have studied mindfulness for 20 years. I started with yogic philosophy with Dr. Bob Butera at the Yoga Life Institute. Over time, I found my way to Buddhism. I even taught beginner meditation classes.
As a Peer Support Specialist, I volunteered my time with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, also known as NAMI, and facilitated meetings for adults experiencing poor mental wellness.
My story, plus my lived experience, is something that I hope others find inspirational. My motivation, however, is to give back and help others. This podcast is one way that I can do that.
I Am Not a Therapist
Listen, I’m not a therapist or a counselor. The content on this show is not meant to be taken as medical advice. I’m only trying to inspire hope by sharing my story and the techniques that helped me during my healing process because I think you’ll find them helpful too.
Today's Show
I’m sure there have been times in your life when you become unexpectedly overwhelmed with emotion. Whether it’s sadness, fear, anger or even happiness, it seemingly comes out of nowhere leaving you wondering what the heck just happened.
Often when this experience happens, it’s because we’re not paying attention to what’s happening on the inside and how it impacts our body. We ignore it, but it won’t be ignored. It’s like damming up a hose then eventually the pressure causes the hose to pop.
To live a well balanced life, it’s important to learn how to not only identify emotions, but to accept them then develop healthy ways to express emotion. But how can we learn to identify and accept emotions?
How to Identify and Accept Emotions?
Learning to identify our emotions can be as simple as paying attention to our body. Because our emotions can cause a physical experience within our body. For example, when you get nervous you might get sweaty. Or maybe when you get angry your head hurts.
These are signs that we’re experiencing an emotion, however as we get older, we often stop paying attention to what our body is doing. And so that connection is lost. We have to get back to tuning in to what’s happening in our bodies.
As we settle in to the body and understand how our emotions and body interact, we can begin to take action. When I was doing research for this show, I came across a great tool to take action from Mental Health America.
The PATH to Healthy Ways to Express Emotions
The tool provided by MHA, is actually an acronym for the word PATH, which stands for Pause, Acknowledge, Think and Help. It’s a four-step process to help us identify and accept our emotions along with helping to reconnect mind and body.
Step 1 is to Pause. When we pause we prevent ourselves from reacting to feelings, so that we can take a pro-active stance. MHA recommends counting to 100 or saying the alphabet backwards. I would even add doing some breathing meditation. But in this first step, we’re reconnecting body and mind.
In step 2, we Acknowledge what we’re feeling. For example, you acknowledge that you’re feeling anger and you accept that you’re experiencing anger instead of trying to hide it or push it away.
Step 3 is Think. Following step 2, we’ve provided ourselves some space between ourselves and the emotion, so that we can decide the next steps.
Finally, in Step 4 we take the action. This is the Help step. We’re helping ourselves or others by including healthy ways to express emotion.
What Happens if we Don’t Have Healthy Ways to Express Emotions?
If we don’t have a tool like PATH or something similar, we end up taking all those emotions and burying them deep down inside. Coming back to the hose analogy, eventually it’s going to pop and spill out into your life. Obviously, this is not good.
If we continue to bury our emotions, we run the chance of experiencing loneliness, and more anxiety and depression. Not to mention, there’s research that shows people who suppress their emotions can suffer from high blood pressure and cardiovascular problems.
Cleary, we don’t want to experience more anxiety and depression. And, we don’t want heart health issues. So now that we’ve talked about how to identify your emotions and why it’s important, here are 20 healthy ways to express your emotions. Tying it back to PATH, these 20 items would be plugged in to the Help step.
20 Healthy Ways to Express Emotions
- Talk to a trusted friend or family member about how you're feeling
- Write in a journal or diary
- Practice mindfulness or meditation to help regulate your emotions
- Practice deep breathing exercises
- Seek professional help or therapy
- Engage in physical activity, such as going for a run or doing yoga
- Listen to music or create your own music
- Create art, such as painting or drawing
- Practice gratitude by writing down things you are thankful for
- Engage in a hobby you enjoy, such as gardening or cooking
- Take a relaxing bath or shower
- Spend time in nature or go for a walk outdoors
- Practice self-care by taking care of your physical health, such as getting enough sleep and eating well
- Set boundaries with people who may be causing emotional distress
- Use positive affirmations to boost your self-esteem
- Engage in volunteer work or help others
- Laugh and find humor in situations
- Practice forgiveness and letting go of grudges
- Use positive self-talk to reframe negative thoughts
- Spend time with pets or animals
Wrap Up
So I want to challenge you to try the PATH tool and then incorporate some of the 20 suggestions. These healthy ways to express emotions will help create well being in your life. Let me know how you make out with the process by dropping me line at makingfriendswithdepression@gmail.com
Support the Show
Thanks for being here. I appreciate you listening. If you’d like to learn more about what was discussed in today’s episode, visit my website, Making Friends With Depression. You’ll find the show transcript and resources.
Also, help me spread the word about Making Friends With Depression by sharing this episode with a friend today!
And finally, consider supporting the show by picking up some Making Friends with Depression merch. All proceeds go back into supporting the show to cover hosting and other business expenses. The merch store is hosted by Etsy and you’ll find a link in the show notes. It’s greatly appreciated!
Until next time friend, and many blessings!