Negative emotions are far more oppressive if the ones you feel become an identity.
If I feel like I am not enough, that must mean that I am, indeed, not enough.
If I feel overwhelmed by emotions of shame, surely this means that I am a shameful person.
You have power to give your emotions visiting hours. You can unhook from this type of thinking by mining distance from your emotions.
I am having the thought that I am not enough.
I am having the thought that I am a shameful person.
You are experiencing a thought. You are not the thought.
Picture a cloud, even a storm cloud perhaps.
They come and go. Sometimes it sprinkles, sometimes they are intimidating, sometimes they are noisy, but they eventually leave.
Treat your negative thoughts and emotions like clouds, not allowing them to become your identity.
Journal Prompt: Emotions I feel that need to be unhooked from my identity…
Boundaries: Journal Prompt Series
Anxiety: Journal Prompt Series
Big Decisions: Journal Prompt Series
Mental Health & Journaling 