Revised: August 16, 2025
Emotions are tunnels. You have to go all the way through the darkness to get to the light at the end.
We are in crisis again for the umpteenth time in the last decade. The constant barrage of executive orders and unholy cabinet appointments is doing a number of our nervous systems.
Our society isn’t known for being particularly savvy about identifying or expressing our emotions. We do a good job numbing, hiding, and burying our feelings. Keep Calm and Carry On, as they say.
Here’s the thing, we have a limit to our capacity to stuff down our feelings. Unacknowledged, these feelings leak out in weird ways and at inopportune times.
Navigating Emotional Tides
As one major event bleeds into another this year, we find ourselves swimming along just trying to keep our heads above water. Just keep swimming.
What is clear is that we are in this energy for the long term. While I will always have hope that things will change for the better, for now we need to adapt to the uncertainty before us and find ways to manage our emotions and energy.
What do we do now? We triage and do the best we can to keep our heads above water and our relationships intact. And triage is managing our emotions and our capacity. Let’s start with navigating emotional tides.
Give emotions room to breathe. We do not have to analyze what we are feeling too deeply, in fact, don’t analyze them at all. Just feel them. Notice the sensations of your body, not the thoughts that rush up with your emotions. Those thoughts are what shut down processing your feelings in the first place.
The goal is to maintain balance and stay present to our emotions. Feel them move around and through your body, trusting they will pass when they complete their cycle.
We can allow ourselves room and time to cry or scream or rage or laugh. If we don’t add our thoughts to the matter and feed all of our fears and frustrations, they will dissipate quickly and we are then left feeling lighter and better able to manage the large load each of us are carrying right now.
Keep refocusing your attention to the sensations in the body. Be curious and let your mind rest by imagining you are erasing it like a giant chalk or dry-erase board. Take steady and slow breaths as you tune into the sensations in your body. You can use a body scan guided meditation like this one.
Managing Capacity
As we move through the uncertainty, remember there is so much about our daily lives that we can’t control. Work schedules, child schedules, store schedules, etc., it is important to remember that we have a capacity, a maximum volume that we can hold. Do you know your capacity?
We usually only know our capacity when we have sailed right past it. Have you thought about how you can reduce your load? At least temporarily?
With so many things on our plates that are not flexible, we will need to find where in our schedules there is room for flexibility. Maybe it is with chores? Maybe it is recruiting help from other family members or coworkers or your community?
Asking for help is often hard, so sit with it. Warm up to the idea. See what things can wait, what can’t, and if they can’t, how you can find a solution that works for now.
Now is not the time for perfection; it is the time for good enough. Experiment, and let your creativity explore options without censoring them. Life has constricted. Our time, our options, our space, our lives are constricted.
If we allow it, this is when our creativity shines. Get crazy with it. Not every idea will be feasible. Not every option will work out, but I trust you will find the nuggets you need to keep going. To keep showing up and getting things done.
Don’t forget to breathe. Don’t forget to scream and cry, even if those aren’t your feelings you are experiencing, let the energy escape. There will be a time in the future when we can get specific and do our healing; for now, it is time for triage and balancing our precarious capacity.
As you move towards the fall, examine how you can increase your capacity. Is there a mindfulness practice or self-care ritual you can begin? Something that brings you into a quiet space for a few minutes or even an hour. Find quiet so you can tune into yourself.
Perhaps right before bed, leave your phone across the room, climb into bed, take some deep breaths, and close your eyes. Just be there, sitting in bed, feeling your heartbeat, and following your breath. Allow your mind to wander, and do your best to watch the thoughts bounce around instead of thinking about them.
Once you have felt your shoulders drop and your breathing slow, you can finish and go to sleep. Or read a book if you can’t sleep, and remain in this quieter, slower state until you fall asleep. This process will allow your capacity to expand, renewing your energy so you can continue to navigate the uncertainty until once again the light returns. Remember, in time, the light will return, we just don’t know when.
Ready for Some Help?
If you are looking for a reset of your energy, consider a Quantum Alignment session. In these sessions, we can address what is on the surface that is feeling heavy and causing you stress. I can also clear and balance your energy system so you are ready to go a few more rounds in the ring. Schedule a session now or a free 30-minute consultation.
