When emotions feel louder than usual
I had one of those days recently where I woke up feeling off.
A little irritable.
A little frustrated.
Even a little angry.
Have you ever had that experience?
And you can’t quite explain why you feel the way that you feel.
You know it's not because something major happened, but in that moment, everything is just feeling like a bit too much.
That was the space I found myself in.
I was more reactive than usual.
More impatient.
More mentally overloaded by everything I was trying to hold, track, and stay on top of.
As the day unfolded, I started recognizing a low grade resentment underneath it all, which is not at all my norm.
In fact, I’ve actually learned that resentment specifically is a signal that I’m functioning in a way that’s a bit out of alignment for me.
Maybe you have one of those emotional signals too?
Of course no one wants to feel this way. So it's easy to ignore it, try to push it away or move past it as quickly as possible.
But even thought it wasn't a "good" feeling, or one that's generally considered socially acceptable, I know that all feelings are a source of information.
Part of emotional awareness is letting yourself be honest about what you’re actually thinking and experiencing. So I started by listening to my resentment and allowing myself to notice everything that felt like it was contributing to how I was feeling.
And I think it's important to clarify that acknowledging how we're feeling or the things outside of us that may be contributing to our current state is NOT the same as blaming them or assuming those external factors need to fix things or are responsible for changing how we feel.
Once I let myself acknowledge what was contributing to my current state, I could then move on to the simple truth:
I was feeling a bit overextended.
My nervous system was overloaded and my mental load was high so my internal bandwidth was lower than usual.
Based on everyone I talked to this week, it sounds like this is something a lot of people are experiencing right now.
This time of year can feel especially full. Schedules get busier and there’s a subtle pressure to fit everything in before summer arrives and everything shifts again.
And when that happens, those "negative" emotions tend to get louder.
Irritability.
Frustration.
Resentment.
One of the most important shifts for my mental wellbeing that I’ve made in my own relationship with emotions is learning not to immediately see them as something wrong.
But instead as information.
Because when I can pause long enough to actually listen to what they’re pointing to, I can adjust.
And often that looks like more:
Rest. Simplification. Boundaries. Support. Space.
Because life isn't about never feeling uncomfortable emotions or finding the perfect external circumstances, but a deeper ability to meet yourself exactly where you're at, in real time.
