Emotional Boomerang

In this series of posts I will be sharing some metaphors which I find useful. I tend to think visually, so metaphors are very powerful for understanding particular concepts.

Emotions can be incredibly powerful experiences, mentally, behaviourally and physiologically, for both positive and negative emotional states.

So, what can happen we feel overwhelmed by emotions? We want to get rid of them. Either push them down, ignore them, or in the case of this metaphor, throw them away. The problem is, they will eventually come back and hit us in the face.

When we are highly anxious or angry, this can release stress hormones into the body such as cortisol. This has a number of benefits and allows to protect ourselves and deal with the current situation, however high levels of cortisol can become toxic. The negative impacts of too much cortisol include higher blood pressure, impaired cognitive function, and reduced effectivess of our immune system. In 2013 a study by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Rochester showed people who pushed down, or suppressed their emotions increased their chance of premature death from all causes by more than 30%, with their risk of cancer increasing by 70%.

The solution? To experience and regulate emotions. To answer is not to not have emotions, rather to learn to balance them, through learning about the physical, mental, and behavioural aspects of emotion, what contributes to and keeps them going, and how to break unhelpful cycles using thoughts, behaviours and sensations.