We all have times when we struggle to prioritise our emotional needs, and it can leave us physically and emotionally exhausted, unable to sleep well, and feeling irritable. It's what trauma expert Dr Eric Gentry calls 'compassion fatigue' - a sign that our internal emotional backpack is overflowing because we are struggling to prioritise our own emotional needs. The pandemic has highlighted this struggle in bold!
In today's episode I outline the 4 steps of an exercise called, 'unpacking your emotional backpack' which is a helpful way to prevent compassion fatigue. It allows you to have difficult conversations without experiencing a strong emotional reaction of fear, shock, anger or worry because you remember something bad that has happened in your past.
1/ Untangle your feelings and make sense of them using 'The Drawing Check-In' exercise.
2/ Communicate compassionately - learn the sequence of I feel, need, value, and tell me.
3/ Get to know yourself - and unlock your scripted psychophysical suffering.
4/ Evaluate self-care - do you know what your body is really telling you?
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