I’ve been acutely aware of something happening to me lately.

This intense feeling of uncomfortableness that rises up in my body, usually mixed with anger. I’d say this is a daily occurrence. Which if you ask me, is way too frequent for my own inner peace liking.

I f-ing can’t stand it. For starters it’s damn annoying. Does anyone enjoy meeting these emotions head on? Pain in the ass. Because I’ve come to realize and slowly accept … if you don’t deal with them and surpress that shit, it’s going to come back on your ass, like 20 fold.

Way way way worse. Take it from me on this.

Honestly, my first inclination when I have these surges is to run to the medicine cabinet. Except then I realize I’ve gone all natural and holistic and I’ll be GD if I don’t have a percocet laying around these parts. My second thought is to call someone who does have something. Oh the serenity a Xanax could give me.

Except quick fixes are just that. Quick. And they never deal with what’s really going on, so I find them to be way worse. There is nothing conducive to suppressing emotions and not dealing with shit.

Mainly because it comes back to bite me in the ass at some weird time. Like at the Ikea Checkout and it takes everything in me not to have a childish meltdown over pillows. Of course it really has nothing to do about the pillows but all those staring people don’t know that!

I decided it was time to face this onslaught emotion machine. Stare it down. Have it out. Can’t say I was all that confident that I could make it but I’m still here, so that has to be saying something.

What I’ve discovered is, after about 10 minutes, if I can keep my cool that long, it eases up. I start breathing long and deep. I notice my breaths prior to have been choppy and rushed. Too frantic.

I take the Yogi advice of using long deep breathing as a tool. Sure, it’s all sorts of irritating. It takes great self control to not lose it and fly off the handle at the closest person to me {ahem, The BF}, but it passes.

That’s just it — there is an end point. Breathing through the emotion, while extremely challenging, allows me time to process what is happening. To be an observer rather than a judger of myself.

It’s working wonders, People. If only had someone clued me in about this prior to prescription drugs!

The next time you’re having a moment, try it. Don’t run from the intensity. Use it. Channel it in to your breath. Start to slow things down. See how much better you feel and then thank the inner Yogi in you.