One of the things I love to do with my clients is to get really down and dirty with their emotional landscape. Well, duh right?! Isn’t that what therapy’s for?
Well yes, it is but I love taking it lots more steps further and get really familiar with your darkest, deepest secrets and all those nooks and crannies where anxiety and depression can live.
What’s this mean to you? Well, basically it just means that we’ll be getting super clear and comfortable with all the things that make up your total wellness self. Lovely!!
So … one of the things I love to figure out is what are your emotional Achilles heels?
First, what’s this mean? An Achilles heel is that tendon which connects your leg to your foot (basically) and from which you derive your ability to move from. If your Achilles heel is hurt or torn, it’s very hard to function as you used to do without crippling pain and limited movement.
An emotional Achilles heel functions the same way and will literally knock you on your ass if you’re unaware it’s coming (they love the element of surprise!)
Those times when you have a strong visceral reaction to an event that doesn’t make sense is usually a clue that an emotional Achilles heel is working behind the scenes.
So let’s look at how you know this is happening: ever had one of those days (or weeks sometimes) where you feel like a Mack truck has run you over and you don’t know whether you’re coming or going? Where you can’t stop crying or panicking?
This is the red flag of all mothers: that shit just got real and dirty.
It’s your brain’s way of telling you to SLOW DOWN and figure this out before things get worse (as if it were that easy!!).
My opinion on this is that knowing what the hell just happened, will make all the difference in being able to manage your emotions and then eventually control them. Winning!
To give you some ideas of what some common emotional Achilles heels are, here’s a quick list of examples:
- Fear of the unknown
- Uncertainty
- Feeling trapped
- Being ignored
- Feeling left out
- Loud noises or suddent movements
These are just a small sampling of all the different emotions that you may hate having and that you will do whatever you can to avoid feeling them.
I find that people have anywhere from 5 to 10 on average so taking some time to do recon on what your Achilles heels are, will help you greatly in the future! I always tell my clients: the more information you have, the more power you have. If you want, leave your Achilles heels in the comments so we can add more to our list.
Happy discovery!
