I had a beautiful experience this weekend in my Co-Active “Process” coaching development course, and developed a new appreciation of how sitting with our emotions helps us become better leaders and humans. We explored some of our most uncomfortable emotions — those we typically avoid at all costs — and had that transformative moment that just being fully present with it actually allows it to breathe and flow through the body. For me, that emotion was anger. In the session I just yelled, snapping directly at my coach. That anger had been holding me inactive for days. Venting the steam took all of 90 seconds total, after which I felt completely free and able to concentrate.
How much energy do we expend trying to avoid the feeling we just can’t live with, and how much creativity and connectivity could we unlock by just giving ourselves the time and space to feel all those feelings fully?