(no subject)

[flamingsword]

I think maybe there's a way around how bad I am with my feelings, and how slippery and hard to hold onto they are. I automatically try to think about my feelings, and maybe that's not what you're supposed to do with them? I'm good with words though, so I think something creative that diverts the thinkiness away from the feelings and give my brain something to chew on while the rest of me explores the feeling-as-verb side of things might work better. Poetry?

I bought myself daffodils Monday. They're so bright in my kitchen they make my eyes ache to look at them. Beautiful. ^_^

Comments

[lifeblender.livejournal.com]

Feelings act on their own, and are better caught by crystallization than in snapshots. When I don't know what a feeling is, I let it grow, or flower if you will. Analysis is then done by smell, rather than sight. I have a poor smell memory, so I think that's why it works well as a metaphor for me. I am accustomed to letting a smell linger for a while in real life before I can identify it. With emotions, I do the same thing, by closing my inner eye and experiencing the effects of an emotion (like adrenaline, panic, joy, ego ups and downs). Eventually I either match these subtleties to an emotion I have experienced before or heard of, or I label the emotion as new. In that case I spend more time letting its experience sink into my memory for clearer comparison to others later.

For my method of self-distraction, I use direct removal of mental activity. I practiced staring at an object and stopping all thought when I was in high school, to the extent where my eyes stopped moving and/or I got tunnel vision. I could do it for about fifteen minutes, but never longer. You'd think that if I could do it that long, I could do it forever, but that just wasn't how it was. I know that doesn't help you, but you could try mentally performing martial arts or gymnastics, giving someone a massage, or even trying shoes, whatever physical activity your body can do without thought.

The daffodils sound great. :)

[daddio914.livejournal.com]

Sounds like Wu-Wei. :)

[lifeblender.livejournal.com]

Action through inaction? I think so.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

There, I cannot help you, but poetry can't be a bad thing, right?

[flamingsword.livejournal.com]

It really can. :( Remember the poetry we all wrote when we were sophmores in high school? I burned mine, and I stand by that decision.

Uh . . . I got better. So I'm not dreading this or anything. Well, not exactly. But I think maybe I'll cut-tag the rest of it anyway? People should have to undertake art, not have it accidentally exposed to them like someone whose neighbors left the drapes open. :)

[bouncyone.livejournal.com]

Thinking about feelings? :>

I've been recently attempting to experience feelings in and of themselves. I will even try to amplify the feelings.(this could also be considered removing barriers we place up to protect ourselves) I want the experience. I want to feel to my core exactly what life is offering me. When I feel deeply, I'm not sure I necessarily need an explanation. Although you can bet if it becomes annoying and reoccurring I'll create one so I can move on.

[flamingsword.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I'll take down barriers to get a better read on a set of feelings, especially when I can't identify them.

I usually solve emotional problems by arranging myself around not needing to feel that way, but it's a bit like that saying about tools: when all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail. I think maybe I need a screwdriver. (Possibly a daquiri.)

[bouncyone.livejournal.com]

*hands you a daquiri*

[flamingsword.livejournal.com]

*toasts you with daquiri*

To your health, sir!

[daddio914.livejournal.com]

Well... this is an interesting question... maybe something you'd like to talk about in more depth in person.

I've got some of the same issues, myself. There are some upsides, and there are some downsides. I think part of the key (for me at least) is in remembering not to try to control the emotions and remembering not to ignore them. Either one of those things can cause them to build up to the point that you have "issues".

I think that the ability to analyze your emotions is an important one. Why you are feeling the way you do is quite often more important than the feeling itself. Especially when you're dealing with "negative" emotions.

And I did for some time use poetry therapeutically... Sometimes it helps to get it out on paper where you can take a look at it from all sides. Its not such a mystery, then.

G'luck. :)

[flamingsword.livejournal.com]

The mystery is the problem. How do I know where something is coming from if I don't know what it is? Am I angry, afraid, annoyed? Some nameless emotion that English doesn't have a word for? The rock-tumbling process of turning it over and over to sand down the edges will make it more identifiable, I think.

Then I can figure out what, if anything, to do about it.

[daddio914.livejournal.com]

Poetry has always been something akin to a rock-tumbling process for me. It's definitely a process of refinement. And even if there are no words for the feeling, I can create an image that expresses it. That's part of why I gravitate more toward "deep imagist" type poetry.

When something's particularly vexing, paying close attention to my dreams also helps, but I'm sure you already do that. :)