This Barbie has all the feels

Aug 16

I know. I know. I’m late to the Barbie party.

I actually saw the movie a couple weeks ago, but wanted to relish in it a bit and give myself space to process.

I promise no spoilers if you haven’t seen it.

But it was everything I wanted it to be! A little cheesy, a little cheeky and a little nostalgic while also managing to be a lot inspiring and thought provoking.

I laughed.

And I cried.

Raise your hand if you also cried!! 🙋🏻‍♀️

It definitely brought up all the feels.

And on this Leo New Moon you may be feeling all the feels too.

This new moon asks us to boldly embrace who we are and what we value, like Barbie.

And Leo gives us the confidence to do so, especially around our relationships and creativity.

Or you might be feeling all the feels for other reasons right now.

Maybe you have kids returning to school.

Maybe you're noticing the shifts in the weather that signal fall is just around the corner.

Maybe you're getting ready to take that last vacation before Labor Day.

Wherever you are in your summer right now, change is in the air.

And change always brings up all the feels.

Change can be scary. Exciting. Sad. Welcome. Hard. Fun. And so many other things all at once.

Honor each and every one of them.

But don’t stop there.

Let those feelings physically move through you.

Because if you don’t, they could show up in your body as stress, tension or even pain.

We often hold present stress in our neck, shoulders and upper back. Or unprocessed emotions from our past in our hips.

When it comes to trying to relieving physical discomfort you might have tried a lot of things:

You meditate.

You workout.

You get a massage.

You take an Advil.

You use a Theragun.

You go to the doctor.

You see a physical therapist.

But thanks to society teaching us that we should always be happy or grateful or calm or not complain, we don’t often allow ourselves to outwardly show the full range of emotions we’re actually experiencing internally.

So in case you need to hear this today, because I know I did, you have permission to feel your feelings and express your emotions.

We can't predict the future. And ALL our feelings are simply responses to the experiences in our life.

Imagine how boring life would be if we already knew everything we were going to experience, everything other's were going to say to us, everything we were going to say, and everything we were ever going to do?!?

Feelings are what make us human and those experiences worth living through.

What if relieving even just a little of your stress, tension or pain was as simple as allowing yourself to PHYSICALLY process your emotions?

Here are 5 ways to physically process your emotions

#1. Laugh or Cry it out: Put on a movie or show that you know will bring about laughter or tears, whatever would be most beneficial based on your current emotions.

#2. Dance it out: We can dance for joy, dance out rage, dance to process grief. The beauty of dance is that there is a form of dance for every emotion, and every human is born with an innate knowing of how to move their body through dance.

#3. Sweat it out: Go for a run, punch it out in a boxing class or pedal through it in spin.

#4. Shake it out: Shaking each limb of the body is a good way to release energy

#5. Breathe it out: Our breath is the ultimate detoxifier that is happening all day, every day. As you feel your emotion also be present to your breath and breathe as slowly and deeply as you can. Not only will the breath help to process the emotion, the pace and depth of the breath will signal to the nervous system that it is ok to feel the emotion AND it’s ok to let it go.

And wherever you are in your summer schedule...

Go. See. Barbie.