Episode 26: Are emotional wounds affecting your life?
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In Season 4 of the All Gifts Podcast we’re taking a deep dive into topics from my upcoming memoir All Gifts.
Like many, I’ve been wounded yet I’ve been able to heal and see the gifts in all that has happened to me. My wounds are now scars that I can show others and say, “I’ve been through these difficulties, these challenges, this pain and now I want to inspire you to do the same.”
Please subscribe here to learn more about All Gifts the book and to download freebies that will help you process challenges so that you can find your gifts.
In Episode 26 of The All Gifts Podcast, psychologist Alison Cook, PhD joins me to discuss how childhood wounds can show up in our spiritual walks and relationship with God.
Alison is a counselor, a speaker, and co-author of the book “Boundaries for Your Soul.” For over 15 years, Alison has helped women, ministry leaders, couples, and families learn how to heal painful emotions, develop confidence from the inside out, forge healthy relationships, and fully live out their God-given potential.
Alison and I both have a propensity toward meeting the needs of others while minimizing our own. This seems to be more common in women, especially women in faith communities.
Alison Cook, PhD
If we aren’t taught healthy boundaries as children, we can carry this unhealthy minimization into adulthood, our professional lives, and even into the church.
As Alison says in our conversation, this behavior is a “fast track toward burn-out” which could look like anxiety, panic attacks or what Alison calls “emotional hijacking” where uncontrollable emotions just come out.
As I’ve talked about in previous episodes getting from adversity to gifts always starts with processing my emotions. I learned the hard way that if I didn’t process my emotions, they’d squirt out during the times I was most squeezed (and most needing to control them).
Taking a moment to process my emotions also gives me the opportunity to see the signs of burn-out.
Alison and I talk about ways to avoid burn-out in the first place.
For me, I take intentional breaks at the start and end of my day for reflection, prayer, and journaling (put my link here). I also take a longer twenty-four-hour break from work every weekend. Read here for more on how I lead myself.
Alison suggests doing something that brings you back into your own body (acting classes, dance, yoga, breath work), therapy, and other daily practices that can help bring harmony to your life.
Above all, Alison suggests building a good support system ahead of time to help you “tend to your soul.”
The gift of these type of intentional practices is to help you become a more wholehearted person as Brené Brown would say. And, when we do that, we can give to others from a place of fullness.
Listen to hear more wonderful tips from Alison and check out the resources below!
Resources:
IFS Therapy (If this sounds familiar, maybe you heard Molly LaCroix talk about it in this episode)
In this episode, I discuss breaking the cycle of work burnout and four areas to reflect on when stuck in a rut.