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Tag: emotions

When we have a ritual, which NLP and Somatic Coaching can teach you, you can reconnect with your own inner experience embracing whatever arises within, with peaceful awareness and clear intention. Then you can fully experience and process each emotion – joy, grief, anger, amusement, pain, energy, etc. And often, you’ll discover the strength of developing and cultivating an attitude of patient, loving presence that allows the emotions to flow according to your own natural rhythm.

Learn How to Be Vulnerable to Expand Your Full Enjoyment of Life

Written by Maria Connolly on . Posted in Self-Leadership Skills.

We often build walls to keep others away, so we don’t get hurt. Those walls are not protecting us. They are trapping us! Here’s how to take baby steps toward opening up again.“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” ― Brené Brown

“I was badly hurt once. I’m not letting that happen again! I’m putting up walls to keep people at a safe distance and I’m not revealing my true thoughts or feelings so I’m not betrayed or ridiculed again!” Can you relate to these expressions? Many people I’ve talked with are afraid to be vulnerable to one degree or another. (In this article, I am not talking about the pain from sexual, physical or emotional abuse, as the healing of these often requires the assistance of a mental health professional.) 

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Deepen Your Emotional Maturity & Trust Your Feelings When Under Stress

Written by Maria Connolly on . Posted in Controlling Stress, Embodied Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Self-Leadership Skills.

Even with emotional maturity, there are times you don’t trust your feelings, so here’s how to consistently and positively respond to emotional stress…“Who we are is how we lead. We can either lead from heart or we can lead from hurt.” ~ Brené Brown

Often people come to me to bounce off life experiences — to either feel validated or get a reality check. They’ll say something like, “Maria, does this seem right to you? Is it okay to feel what I’m feeling?” I really appreciate being in their life this way. And I love seeing how their mindfulness deepens and adds richness to their emotional maturity over time.

Being mindfully aware of how we feel in our emotions and in our body and then making intentional choices in response is how we manifest emotional maturity. We own our feelings and the path we choose, without complaining, blaming, or making excuses.

This process of emotional growth never ends, because you experience new situations and new feelings. And your current well-being plays a huge part — what you can handle one day may seem overwhelming when you’re overly tired, undernourished or dehydrated.

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Develop Somatic Intelligence to Reconnect with Your Body and Unlock Your Potential

Written by Maria Connolly on . Posted in Mindfulness, Self-Leadership Skills, Somatic Coaching, The Feldenkrais Method®.

When you develop somatic intelligence, your mind and body will work together — no more internal conflicts, unresolved emotions, nor shattered dreams!“There’s a difference between intellect and intelligence. Noise propagates the former, silence the later. Intellect is inherited, intelligence is inherent.” ~ Drew Gerald

When I asked my friend how she was feeling, she replied, “Just fine!” Her words sounded so upbeat. But her body was saying something different. Dark, clouded eyes were downcast; mouth tense; shoulders rolled forward, almost as if they were curving over to protect her heart; hands clenching. Because of years of developing sensory acuity, I could tell she really thought everything was okay, but the dissonance with her body told another story.

As I gently inquired further, her story emerged. As she spoke, a softening of her body occurred. By the end of our lunch together, she exclaimed, “I feel so much better. I didn’t know that was bothering me so much!”

You can probably relate. Your body often knows things long before your mind catches up. It remembers today’s experiences AND all of your past experiences.

However, we’ve learned to doubt our body wisdom, to second guess ourselves, to ignore the messages that the body is sending. We spend so much time treating the body as a separate entity apart from thoughts and feelings that we create conflict and disharmony within ourselves.

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Crisis and Trauma: When the Present Collides with the Past

Written by Maria Connolly on . Posted in Emotional Intelligence, Self-Leadership Skills.

When you experience a current crisis and trauma from the past resurfaces because of it, it’s important to listen to what your emotions are telling you.On May 6th, 1976 right around 9pm the ground began to shake. I lived in northern Italy and I was six and a half. I was at home with my 3 year old brother and my grandma. My parents were on their way home from work.

The building we lived in shook for what felt like an eternity. I didn’t know what an earthquake was but I knew that houses were not supposed to shake. Because of her age, my grandma froze and the three of us huddled in the dark kitchen, until my father came to get us.

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Feel Your Feelings: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Body

Written by Maria Connolly on . Posted in Emotional Intelligence, Self-Leadership Skills.

Is it hard to feel your feelings, after a lifetime of suppressing your emotions? Use my 4-step process to safely feel your feeling fully and productively. “We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.”– Albert Einstein

Everyone is entitled to their feelings. This statement is powerful. But accepting its validity is only part of the process when you’re learning to feel your feelings. I’ve seen people cling to this piece of wisdom and not grow beyond it.

Scenario 1: They use their emotions to punish themselves. For example, their thinking goes something like this, “She hurt me. I’m entitled to feeling hurt, because everybody lets me down. Nobody loves me.” They get stuck feeling their feelings and they become overwhelmed by them, because they don’t know how to fully process them in a healthful way. And because those feelings feel so bad, they sink into depression and despair.

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