May 10, 2022.
I first learned about the term “Emotional Home” doing a program hosted by Tony Robbins in 2020. It immediately made sense to me when it was explained. We live in our bodies which is a physical home and then we have an emotional home, which is how we feel on a daily basis. One thing that we must ask ourselves is what is my most dominant emotion, or in any given 7-day period, which emotions are most prevalent? Someone might say sad, happy, apathetic, enthusiastic, etc. Whatever it is, there is no right or wrong answer; however, we must decide if we are content with our emotional home. If not, we ought to figure out what we can do about it.
How to know your emotional home
There are many things that affect one’s emotional home including mental health, living environment, past traumas, work environments, and self-image to name a few. The first step to turning your home into your desired outcome is awareness. Ask yourself: what are my top empowering emotions? What are my top disempowering emotions? Which emotions do I normally feel on a daily basis? What is affecting my emotional home? What changes need to be made? One might have to seek help or limit interactions with certain people or stop doing things that dampen their spirits and replace them with things that they are more passionate about, for example. In the same way that we curate our living space, we should also make an effort to design our emotional home.
Emotions and Feelings
Emotions are produced in the subconscious brain which triggers release of neurochemicals that produce sensations in the body or what we call feelings. Emotions are like a wave and they last 90 seconds in the body. What makes emotions last longer is that we keep repeating the thoughts that reactivate the circuits in our brains keeping the feelings and sensations associated with that emotion. What we all need to do is sit and feel the sensations without judgement. Let it pass and set a timer if that helps. I know this is easier said than done, however I have managed to try this, and it’s freeing to know that you don’t have to react to emotions that you feel. It’s particularly helpful with triggers. Sometimes the emotions we feel are a reaction we used to have when we were young, and the trigger does not have the same meaning anymore, but we still have the same emotional response. In these cases, training yourself to feel emotions without reacting can help with growing out of the triggers.
Questions of the day:
- What is my emotional home?
- Am I happy with my emotional home? If not, what could I do to create a more desirable emotional home?
Comment your thoughts and share with a friend who might benefit from reading this!