Last week, we looked at what emotions communicate to us.  This week we will look at puzzles and taking time to process emotions. 

Imagine for a moment that I dumped a 1000 piece puzzle on a table in front of you, and told you this was something you needed to complete in 5 minutes.  You couldn’t do it.  Putting together a puzzle like that requires time and patience.  In 5 minutes you’d barely be able to identify all the edge pieces in that time.  Maybe you’d get lucky and a couple of pieces would connect together, but you wouldn’t make substantial progress.  The puzzle would be left unfinished.

You might be wondering what this has to do with anything.  Emotions are a lot like a 1000 piece puzzle.  Working through them requires time and patience.  The challenge is that we live in a world that directly and indirectly tells us that we need to speed through our emotions.  We need to get through them as quickly as possible so we can get back to being productive and efficient again.  As a result, sometimes I rush through my emotions without truly feeling them, understanding what they are telling me, or how they are impacting my outlook on things.  Do you ever do this? 

When I don’t take the time to process my emotions that it becomes like an unfinished puzzle.  The only difference is that not finishing an emotional puzzle ends up having negative consequences.  I’ve found that if I don’t take the time to work through tough emotions like fear, anxiety, and anger then I suffer negative consequences like not taking great care of myself and lashing out toward others I have relationships with (I become sharp like a thornbush).  Have you ever experienced negative effects from not processing what you’re going through?    

The challenge: Will you take the time to work through your emotions, even when the world is telling you that you are too busy to do so?

Bonus insight into my brain: Originally, instead of using puzzles as a metaphor I was going to use a difficult math problem.  The idea would still be the same.  You can solve the math problem, it just might take you time.  Then, I realized that emotions are not a problem to be solved.  They are part of something that helps you see the full picture of what you are experiencing

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry