Journal Prompts #14: On Emotions and Sticky Stories
Featuring Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's 90 Second Rule.
Grab a journal. Even if you think you don’t want to or it feels hard, I promise it will deliver. Pen to paper, it is old school, it is nostalgic, it is something to see the ink or that pencil point meet the page, it is not nothing and that is something these days.
Surprise yourself with your answers in your journal. As always, so optional.
I have been thinking a lot about Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, the neuroscientist who had a stroke and told about it on the TED TALK called My Stroke of Insight. And then wrote a book with the same title and another great book I highly recommend about living with your whole brain (because some times/often we don’t!).
Obviously, a big fan of Dr. Jilll.
She also said this that I share all the time:
“Please take responsibility for the energy you bring into this space”.
What I am ruminating most from Dr. Jill is her 90 second rule about the life cycle of an emotion in the body. Have you heard this already? Well for those that have, here is your refresh and for that that haven’t, this is a scratch and sniff sticker offering and I highly recommend you dive deeper, I will link more resources at the bottom as always but this video is a great start.
I have talked to this concept a lot with my coaching clients and with myself this week and I want to tell you why this is resonating so much. I remember learning this years on years ago and linking it directly to harder emotions for me like sadness, anger, grief and embarrassment to name (only) a few. And this week, I realized this is also the same 90 seconds with emotions like joy, contentedness, self compassion and gratitude.
And in a time where the doom scroll is real and the news is truly awful and unimaginable, I have been asking myself about the 90 seconds on both sides of the emotional spectrum in my body and brain and where I can invite space, feeling, moments of joy or relief amidst a lot of feelings of anguish and overwhelm….
even for 90 seconds.
Grab a journal, I highly recommend pen to paper.
What are you feeling today? Check in and feel around in the body, the dark corners, the seldom visited spaces of your mind, and the heart - as if checking in on an old friend with tenderness and curiosity.
What stories are you holding on to that is keeping emotions in the body past that 90 second marker? These can be a stories that no longer serves you or stories that feels wonderful. Both/and.
2a. Should it be time to let go of an old story, I highly recommend pressing play on this song by Trevor Hall feat. Emory Hall.
2b. Should it be a story for keeps, I say draw a picture in your journal and if you are not someone who draws, even better. Try it.
The body is a beautiful place full of intricacies we know and then of course, so much we don’t and won’t ever know because nature is beyond. Can you say thank you to your body for being dynamic, complex, and even complicated? Write it down and see what happens in the body (where the brain resides, too) when you acknowledge them. Write that feeling down, too. It might sounds like this: I feel …. seen, heard, loved might surface and for that, I will keep writing.
RESOURCES:
VISIT:
Dr Jill Bolte Taylor’s website
READ:
The 90 Second Rule that Builds Self Control on Psych Today
The Difference Between Feelings and Emotions on Wake Forest University
How Stories Change the Brain on Greater Good Magazines
BOOKS:
Whole Brain Living by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown
I am also a big fan of Dr. Jill 💕
Love the 90 sec theory!! Also, on round 2 through the Atlas of the Heart. One of those books with so many layers I could read over and over and pick up new gems 🤓❤️