Emotions

In therapy, I often talk to my clients about sitting with their emotions, & recently had a client ask how this was different from stewing or wallowing in emotions.

I figure others might have the same question.

The dictionary defines wallowing as indulging in an experience in an unrestrained way.

I say that stewing is feeling a negative emotion & embracing it, adding energy to it, amplifying it and not trying to change or get out of the negative experience.

When I am speaking about sitting with an emotion, I am talking about noticing that emotion, being curious about that emotion.

When sitting with an emotion we are not fighting it, or feeding it, or trying to stay in it. Neither are we trying to change it.