How did you learn to manage overwhelming feelings?
August 5, 2025
Hey ladies. Have you have been struggling with regulating your emotions? How did you get through it or manage it more effectively?
8 comments
We women really need more hours of than the regular 8hrs. The more well-rested we are the more stable our hormones are.
So to answer your question, I managed it by getting amount of sleep. Well, it depends on the other knowing we live in a different situation. The more well-rested I am the more I can managed whatever overwhelming feeling that I’m feeling. And I can also, prepare the incoming ones.
[removed]
I have a mental health history that includes severe problems regulating difficult emotions.
How did Iearn? I found the most amazing fucking therapist who specializes in that, and I really clicked with her. Through her guidance I learned so, so much better how to sit and be able to safely process difficult, overwhelming feelings. She changed my life immensely.
A lot of what we worked on was simply learning how to sit and be physically present with emotions without being so reactive to them. She had some techniques she taught me that were so immensely difficult and painful at first, but over time I found that they became second nature and I was just far more able to tolerate those feelings without reacting, and let them flow through.
For instance, when a strong feeling came up, she’d ask me to identify where it was in the body. That confused me at first — it’s a feeling, how can it be in the body? — but then I started realizing: yes, I feel this pain right in the bottom of my throat. Okay, so now bring your attention to that part of your body. Even touch it lightly if you want. And from there, just sit, focus on your breath, and slowly feel that emotion start to work its way out of your body.
I also took some pointers from Buddhist teachings and teachers. I don’t claim to be Buddhist, but Buddhism has a LOT of insight into what feelings actually are (temporary phenomena that arise and cease) and how they operate, and how you can learn to simply observe them without being reactive to them.
Sometimes, even a simple shift in perspective can help. There were two sort of mantras I started saying to myself that were incredibly helpful.
The first was: “I don’t have to do anything about it right now.” That was incredibly useful to me. I’d be really struggling with some overwhelming negative feeling, which activated my fight-or-flight or just general suffering, distress and feelings of being overwhelmed. Sometimes that would lead me to say or do things that weren’t helpful for me.
So instead, I’d just sit there, identify the emotion, and say “Okay, I don’t have to do anything about it right now.” That was a gamechanger at making me realize the feeling wasn’t anything that needed to be fixed right then, and I didn’t have to respond to it. I could just let it exist without reacting to it or giving it too much control over me and my life.
The other useful thing I started doing was to identify the presence of the feeling without identifying *with* it too much. So instead of “I’m so angry” or “I feel so hopeless, I can’t handle this,” I’d shift that to something less personalized: “Oh, there is sadness.” “There is fear.” “There is anger.” Naming the emotion but not attaching it to myself or making it a quality intrinsic to me, if that makes sense.
That really helped me get enough distance from the emotion that I could observe it without having it totally flood me. “There is grief there, okay, I see it.” Just like all other emotions it’s temporary and will pass, even if it feels overwhelming right now.
Whenever I felt overwhelmed my heart would want to cry and react but I just wanted my room to go sit and write about it…that helped me…how does that sound to you ?
Honestly, I just started letting myself feel things instead of fighting them. I sit with the emotion, cry if I needed, then do something simple like walk or shower. I stopped making it worse. Over time, that made it easier.
What helped me most was slowing down deep breaths, journaling, and learning to sit with my feelings instead of pushing them away. Also, talking to someone I trust made a big difference.
One day at a time.
Have it as my mantra, pasted on the wall and tell myself when I will get to that difficult place, I will have the grace and strength for it. I believe in a Higher Power so that helps.
I’m still actively working on it but therapy and journaling has taken me a long way, the act of writing my thoughts and feelings down almost has the same effect as having someone else listen to me vent whilst also giving me a better platform to logically analyse the emotions
8 comments
We women really need more hours of than the regular 8hrs. The more well-rested we are the more stable our hormones are.
So to answer your question, I managed it by getting amount of sleep. Well, it depends on the other knowing we live in a different situation. The more well-rested I am the more I can managed whatever overwhelming feeling that I’m feeling. And I can also, prepare the incoming ones.
[removed]
I have a mental health history that includes severe problems regulating difficult emotions.
How did Iearn? I found the most amazing fucking therapist who specializes in that, and I really clicked with her. Through her guidance I learned so, so much better how to sit and be able to safely process difficult, overwhelming feelings. She changed my life immensely.
A lot of what we worked on was simply learning how to sit and be physically present with emotions without being so reactive to them. She had some techniques she taught me that were so immensely difficult and painful at first, but over time I found that they became second nature and I was just far more able to tolerate those feelings without reacting, and let them flow through.
For instance, when a strong feeling came up, she’d ask me to identify where it was in the body. That confused me at first — it’s a feeling, how can it be in the body? — but then I started realizing: yes, I feel this pain right in the bottom of my throat. Okay, so now bring your attention to that part of your body. Even touch it lightly if you want. And from there, just sit, focus on your breath, and slowly feel that emotion start to work its way out of your body.
I also took some pointers from Buddhist teachings and teachers. I don’t claim to be Buddhist, but Buddhism has a LOT of insight into what feelings actually are (temporary phenomena that arise and cease) and how they operate, and how you can learn to simply observe them without being reactive to them.
Sometimes, even a simple shift in perspective can help. There were two sort of mantras I started saying to myself that were incredibly helpful.
The first was: “I don’t have to do anything about it right now.” That was incredibly useful to me. I’d be really struggling with some overwhelming negative feeling, which activated my fight-or-flight or just general suffering, distress and feelings of being overwhelmed. Sometimes that would lead me to say or do things that weren’t helpful for me.
So instead, I’d just sit there, identify the emotion, and say “Okay, I don’t have to do anything about it right now.” That was a gamechanger at making me realize the feeling wasn’t anything that needed to be fixed right then, and I didn’t have to respond to it. I could just let it exist without reacting to it or giving it too much control over me and my life.
The other useful thing I started doing was to identify the presence of the feeling without identifying *with* it too much. So instead of “I’m so angry” or “I feel so hopeless, I can’t handle this,” I’d shift that to something less personalized: “Oh, there is sadness.” “There is fear.” “There is anger.” Naming the emotion but not attaching it to myself or making it a quality intrinsic to me, if that makes sense.
That really helped me get enough distance from the emotion that I could observe it without having it totally flood me. “There is grief there, okay, I see it.” Just like all other emotions it’s temporary and will pass, even if it feels overwhelming right now.
Whenever I felt overwhelmed my heart would want to cry and react but I just wanted my room to go sit and write about it…that helped me…how does that sound to you ?
Honestly, I just started letting myself feel things instead of fighting them. I sit with the emotion, cry if I needed, then do something simple like walk or shower. I stopped making it worse. Over time, that made it easier.
What helped me most was slowing down deep breaths, journaling, and learning to sit with my feelings instead of pushing them away. Also, talking to someone I trust made a big difference.
One day at a time.
Have it as my mantra, pasted on the wall and tell myself when I will get to that difficult place, I will have the grace and strength for it. I believe in a Higher Power so that helps.
I’m still actively working on it but therapy and journaling has taken me a long way, the act of writing my thoughts and feelings down almost has the same effect as having someone else listen to me vent whilst also giving me a better platform to logically analyse the emotions