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How I Dive Into My Emotions Without Drowning Myself In Them
Sometimes, all we can do is dip our toes in slowly, and that’s okay
Diving into our emotions can be so difficult that, sometimes, we don’t even give ourselves permission to dip our toes in the water. The fear of what lies beneath the surface can be paralyzing, holding us back from exploring the depths of our inner world.
It’s a strange paradox — the very thing that holds the key to our healing can also become the source of our greatest distress. We tell ourselves that it’s safer to stay on the shore, where the waters are calm and predictable, rather than risk being swept away by the currents.
Anything to avoid facing the uncomfortable truths that lie within us.
I’ve been there myself. Caught between the extremes of feeling everything intensely or numbing myself completely, I found myself standing on the edge of my emotions, afraid to take the plunge.
It was as if I didn’t know there could be a middle ground, a place where I could acknowledge my feelings without being overwhelmed by them.
In those moments, the idea of diving into my emotions felt like staring into the abyss — daunting and overwhelming. I worried that if I allowed myself to fully feel, I would be consumed by the intensity of it all. So instead, I remained on the shore, clinging to the safety of familiar ground.
But as I stood there, watching the waves crash against the shore, I realized that staying on the sidelines was not the answer.
Here’s the reality about staying on the shore: while it may offer temporary relief, it also sentences us to a perpetual state of stagnation.
I know because I’ve spent years on the shore. I’d stay there, simultaneously anxious and frozen, paralyzed by the fear of what might happen if I dared to venture into uncharted waters.
It’s no wonder why. I had been conditioned to suppress my feelings, to bury them deep down where they couldn’t hurt me. I’d numb myself with distractions — scrolling endlessly through social media, binge-watching TV shows, burying myself in work — convincing myself that if I just ignored them long enough, they would disappear on their…
