Why You Feel Anxious: The Truth About Emotions
Emotions are at the center of everything we experience. They give our lives meaning and purpose and shape our relationships, reflect our values, and hold our history. And yet, most of us were never really taught how to understand or feel them.
The Message of Anxiety
Anxiety is not a problem, but a result of suppressing our emotions. It is a build up of unprocessed feelings and unfelt sensations, and shows up when we’ve turned away and become too afraid to feel. It is our body’s way of trying to get us to slow down, tune in, and reconnect with ourselves.
How Life Stressors Can Trigger Relationship Anxiety
Relationships aren’t always easy. Not necessarily because we’re in a bad relationship or our partner is wrong for us, but because life can be hard. Challenges like financial stress, work pressure, health issues, deaths, or family chaos can bring real pain and strain into our lives, and if we’re not careful, we might end up projecting our pain onto our relationship, and wondering if we should leave: “With the right partner, I wouldn’t have to feel this disappointed, sad, stressed, irritated, unhappy,” we think.
How to Listen (And Why It’s so Hard)
Listening is one of the most important skills we can have, but no one really teaches us how to do it. In fact, most of us are taught the opposite. We’re taught to analyze, critique, and debate. We’re taught to quickly assess and categorize what we hear: is this something I agree with or not? Is this good or bad? Right or wrong? That kind of black-and-white thinking shapes the way we move through the world, and it makes real listening very hard.
Because once we’re caught in those categories, fear starts to take over. We instinctively pull away from anything that feels “wrong” or uncomfortable. We start listening for what we don’t like, what we disagree with, instead of actually being present with the person in front of us.
And to me, that’s what listening really is: presence. Not proving anything or fixing or judging. Just being there and being willing to take in what someone is saying.
Taking Responsibility for Our Emotions
In this post, I explore what it really means to take emotional responsibility—and how avoiding our feelings often fuels anxiety, blame, and disconnection. I talk about why sitting with our emotions is so difficult (especially in today’s fast-paced culture), and why developing a relationship with our feelings is one of the most powerful forms of healing. You’ll also find reflective questions to support your own inner work, and an invitation to slow down, turn inward, and meet yourself with compassion.
The Root of Anxiety
In this post, I explore a different way of understanding anxiety—not as the problem itself, but as a signal pointing us toward something deeper. We live in a culture that encourages constant busyness and distraction, which often leads us to disconnect from our emotions. Over time, that emotional avoidance builds up, and what we experience as anxiety is really the result of everything we’ve been running from. I share insights on how anxiety is rooted in our fear of feeling, and why true healing begins when we learn to slow down, turn inward, and develop a relationship with our emotions.