HI ,
Do you ever wish you had better words for what you feel?
I do. Even now. Thirty years into this work.
There are still moments in my own life when something hard rises up in me, and I sit there trying to name it, and the best I can do is something vague. "I'm off." "Something's bothering me." "I don't know, I just feel down today."
The feeling is there, but the language isn't. And without the language, it just kind of sits there, running in the background, in the shadows, doing whatever it does to my mood and my energy and my patience with the people I love.
In medical circles, there’s something interesting called the Rumplestiltskin Effect, which points to the therapeutic power of giving an official name to a patient’s unexplained pain or suffering, independent of any medical treatment.
The term comes from the classic fairy tale where learning the name of a mysterious and troublesome entity strips that entity of its power. Naming an unknown condition turns vague and sometimes frightening symptoms into a defined and manageable form.
The same thing goes for those heavy feelings we sometimes carry around like a weight in our spirit. Sometimes, simply knowing what you’re feeling, giving it a name, helps ease the suffering.
This is something I want to talk about on our CoachingCast next week. Because after 30 years of listening to what actually comes up when people finally get honest about what hurts, I've noticed that there are really only a few core things underneath almost all of it. Not a hundred emotions. Not fifty. Just a few. Four, to be exact. Four core wounds that sit at the center of almost any kind of suffering we face.
And, like Rumplestiltzkin, once you know their names, and once you can recognize them in yourself, something big changes about how you move through your own inner life. Problems become possibilities. Old, unresolved baggage can finally be set down. Happiness feels attainable. Things become manageable.
I won't spoil the details here. I want to explore them with you live next week. It’s all happening Wednesday, August 19th at noon Pacific.
To make it easy, just use this RSVP LINK.
I hope you'll join us. Oh, and be sure to invite a friend or two!
And just before I go, let me know if you ever feel something weighing on you that you can’t quite describe or name. Drop me a note and tell me about it!
Until next time, this is me, Just Checking In!
