Have you been angry and then immediately felt guilty? Or have you felt sad but then stifled that sadness by feeling shame?

We often use the term secondary emotions to describe these feelings we have about initial automatic emotions.

Automatic emotions are triggered by unconscious stimulus, so we don’t have control over them, but we do have control over how we respond to them. Many times, the secondary response is a complex which was created a long time ago. An example of a complex would be that crying is for weak people or that anger will make people not like you.

Are you able to accept your feelings as they surface, without judging them? Explore where these complexes come from and create new ones like “it’s ok to cry because it makes me more empathic.” Be aware of this physical energy that your feelings create.

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