Following unsettling times and shifts of power I get an overwhelming urge to stuff my emotions away. Lately it seems that I have a delayed reaction to large shifts in culture which shows up primarily in my body. Just yesterday I was extremely tired and wanted to curl up in the fetal position. I felt the stress of uncertain times and followed my body’s wishes into a fetal tuck on the couch. Today I am energized.

Why did it work? Partially because I am not ashamed to take a nap. The other reason is I did not revert to my emotion hiding habits of tech addiction. For a long time watching exciting videos was the ultimate way for me to tune out the worries of the world.  This habit worked pretty well through my teen years, and got me through some tough emotional times. In those days Axle Rose taught me that nothing lasts forever, and porn numbing was no exception. Avoiding the news has become easier and easier for me with lots of practice over the years. Unfortunately, I got to a point where I couldn’t handle one more news reel without shame scrolling for 4 hours and sleeping the remaining 20 hours of a free day.

Rearranging this bad habit was not an easy process, and took me a number of years. But it worked. Nowadays I can handle a lot more bad news and uncertainty. Stuffing the emotions away was a time bomb that went off in an inopportune time. 

Start feeling your emotions today and addictive habits will be less in the future. I believe in you.

This post was written and edited by the human Clark Williamson. There was NO use of artificial intelligence in the making of this content. For more on our policy and views on ai, see imagorefresh.com/techpolicy

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