Loving Myself Means Letting Go of My Fears

My first icebreaker of 2005 was “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”. That was a good omen… and quite possibly part of my life journey. To deal with the fears, over the past few years, I have chosen to look inside of myself, to find out what my emotions are and what brings them on. Why the fear? Why anger? Why sadness? How do I deal with this?

In 2012, I discovered Emotional Fitness®. I was just retired from my regular work and looking for new challenges. I knew, because of my work in Mental Health that positive thoughts and emotions are beneficial to my health. Being a mental health nurse had certainly made me aware of that. That is when I learned, again, that optimum health has the four components of the physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual. This I had already been exposed to by studying the Circle of Health from Prince Edward Island…which had been developed with the participation of our indigenous populations. I was already aware of and becoming more interested in this model: the Circle of Health.

Acknowledging the full complexity of my life was and continues to be my path to emotional well being. There is, after all, messiness in real life and it is important to learn from it and learn how to deal with it, in a healthy manner.

So my goal, actually not sure I fully realized it, was to learn to deal with the good and the bad, looking at both as learning experiences and allowing myself to find meaning in both and thus supporting and taking care of my overall well being. Although I much prefer good feelings, who doesn’t, I do recognize that my negative emotions are also a part of me and are often a vital clue that a health issue, relationship, or other important matter needs my attention. In fact, I and many others, are now much more aware that pushing back, swallowing or negating emotions can spawn emotional overeating, alcohol or drug addiction, jealousy, anxiety, worry and have other self defeating results. And, so, I am now on my continuing journey of self growth and self love through the experiential learnings of Emotional Fitness®.