[mock-possum]

Yep, sometime after college I sort of settled on this method of visualizing my emotions / feelings - take what I’m feeling, hold it in front of me, and look at it as it’s own thing, outside and aside from ‘me.’ And then ask myself: 1) what is this that I’m feeling, and 2) what does it make me want to do.

‘Why’ I’m feeling is interesting, whether I should act on a feeling is obviously necessary to consider - but really just those two things, “what is this and what does it make me want to do” is usually enough to move me into a position where I have agency, sidestepping emotional outbursts and ill-considered or unhelpful behavior.

It’s incredibly empowering to find yourself coming out of a situation, thinking “when I was a teen this would have been awful, but now as an adult, it’s just something to roll my eyes at and move on.” Not everybody gets to do that so easily, I feel very lucky to have figured at least this little bit out for myself.

[Obscurity4340]

This sounds very similar to Internal Systems Therapy, which you (possibly unknowingly) have roughly described quite well from my understanding.