Letterpress printed by hand. 13 By 19" Printed on recycled paper. 
 
I've spent so much energy in my life trying to avoid uncomfortable, hard feelings. But the wisdom of feeling the emotions fully offers me so much more respite than avoidance ever did. Processing my feelings means they don't become stuck in my body. Processing feelings mean I can accept what is happening. It means I can release the feelings and the trauma. Like most healing, adopting this new way of responding has been a nonlinear journey. It's not easy, but it's worth it. 

A few years after I sketched out this poster idea I listened to Brene Brown's Unlocking Us as she interviewed Emily Nagoski & Amelia Nagoski about their book: Burnout:The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. The authors say: "the thing that I learned most from writing the book is, the real answer is turning toward the difficult feelings with kindness and compassion. So whether you fight or flee or freeze, and if you have feelings about which one your nervous system chose to do, that’s all fine. Turn toward that with kindness and compassion and let yourself finish the feelings and complete the (stress) cycle."
 
"Your body speaks body language, your body doesn’t know that filing your taxes mean that you’ve accomplished something, your body doesn’t know that a change of legislation means that you now have autonomy over your body’s choices. You need to speak body language and fulfill the thing that it’s intended to fulfill."
 
These are a few things that will do it: any physical activity, a big old cry, a 20 second hug, attention to breath/breathing down & creative expression.