Awareness is good, but being too self-aware is not.

In the world of mental health and emotional wellness, awareness is very much encouraged. It is the very first step to healing because it helps you to see yourself more clearly—your thinking patterns and/or self-sabotaging behaviors, for example. You need to be aware first to be able to continue to the next steps of healing, which are emotional regulation and self-acceptance. However, sometimes people can be too self-aware and that might not be good for them.

At least, this is my experience with it.

After doing a lot of shadow work and journaling, I have become more and more aware of my thinking patterns and my emotions that when I experience something unpleasant, I start to analyze them in my head and intellectualize them to the point of compartmentalizing my emotional self and my intellectualizing self that leads me to indirectly avoiding my unpleasant feelings. It usually results in unaddressed feelings at the end of the day. And if I don’t address them the next day, it will be piled up, and so on and so forth.

Case in point: My brain took over a bit much although my ‘heart’ is the one supposed to be in charge. I am supposed to feel my feelings in that moment no matter how weird and intense they are, so they can pass and not get stuck. After they pass, then I can intellectualize them however I want, to make sense of it.

These days, I get surprised again and again, because when something unpleasant happens, I am able to actually feel them no matter how weird and intense they get at that moment, instead of analyzing and rationalizing them first all the time. My body has learnt to sort out what works more effectively for me and that is an amazing progress. Awareness is good but too much is not so good—just a decent amount will do.

That is all for my quick update regarding my emotional fitness today. Hope this is informational for you, peeps.

You are worthy.

—Later, love!