Surfing the Urge#
Emotional RegulationWeek 8Sometimes, noticing a feeling can make it worse in the short-term. However, it’s important to acknowledge that feeling & give myself time to process emotions. By ignoring/repressing my own feelings & frustrations, I’m just extending my own distress and spreading those frustrations to those around me.
While addressing my issues directly is distressing in the short-term, it minimises long-term impacts of those problems, whether those issues would affect just myself or affect others too. To be blunt, keeping negative emotions/feelings/experiences pushed down is counter-intuitive. It’s important to process and understand what you feel & why, and to process this as soon as you can.
Emotions without ‘Surfing the Urge’#
- Emotions will inevitably be more erratic, since those emotions are being misunderstood or just poorly addressed. Repressing feelings will just make them pop up again, and will prolong intense distress. It’s not healthy.
- Learning to identify emotions as I feel them, as well as process them in a positive way, will minimise the constant fluctuations of having to re-identify unprocessed feelings. It’s literally emotional baggage.
Emotions when ‘Surfing the Urge’#
- Recognising the signs of distress & emotional intensity is critical to processing my emotions more healthily.
- Taking the time to use skills & identify the situation will enable me to prepare for that crisis & take steps to protect my wellbeing, even if it doesn’t prevent an impending crisis.
- Processing the emotions as it arrives, rather than ignoring it, ensures that the next time will be easier.
Personal note: It’s important for me to understand that my emotional difficulties will likely never go away, at least not for a very long time, and that’s okay. Everyone’s difficulties and priorities are different, and mine is to manage my emotional difficulties and strive for a better life.
While my difficulties make things difficult, I have a care and understanding for others that I likely wouldn’t have developed otherwise. Perfection is a moving target, and just accepting the fact that I am disabled, and that it’s my responsibility to manage my disability to the best of my ability, is the difference between being stuck & moving forward.