This document discusses the emotional inhibition schema, which is the excessive inhibition of feelings to avoid disapproval from others. Common areas of inhibition include anger, positive feelings, vulnerability, and disregard for emotions. This schema develops from childhood experiences where emotions were discouraged or caused shame. Over time, people stuff unwanted parts of themselves away to maintain approval. This leads to detachment from emotions and an inability to be fully present in relationships. Reconnecting with suppressed emotions involves understanding their origins, giving oneself permission to feel, and reawakening joyful, spontaneous parts of one's self.
This document discusses the emotional inhibition schema, which is the excessive inhibition of feelings to avoid disapproval from others. Common areas of inhibition include anger, positive feelings, vulnerability, and disregard for emotions. This schema develops from childhood experiences where emotions were discouraged or caused shame. Over time, people stuff unwanted parts of themselves away to maintain approval. This leads to detachment from emotions and an inability to be fully present in relationships. Reconnecting with suppressed emotions involves understanding their origins, giving oneself permission to feel, and reawakening joyful, spontaneous parts of one's self.
This document discusses the emotional inhibition schema, which is the excessive inhibition of feelings to avoid disapproval from others. Common areas of inhibition include anger, positive feelings, vulnerability, and disregard for emotions. This schema develops from childhood experiences where emotions were discouraged or caused shame. Over time, people stuff unwanted parts of themselves away to maintain approval. This leads to detachment from emotions and an inability to be fully present in relationships. Reconnecting with suppressed emotions involves understanding their origins, giving oneself permission to feel, and reawakening joyful, spontaneous parts of one's self.
This document discusses the emotional inhibition schema, which is the excessive inhibition of feelings to avoid disapproval from others. Common areas of inhibition include anger, positive feelings, vulnerability, and disregard for emotions. This schema develops from childhood experiences where emotions were discouraged or caused shame. Over time, people stuff unwanted parts of themselves away to maintain approval. This leads to detachment from emotions and an inability to be fully present in relationships. Reconnecting with suppressed emotions involves understanding their origins, giving oneself permission to feel, and reawakening joyful, spontaneous parts of one's self.
The emotional inhibition schema is defined as the excessive inhibition of
spontaneous action, feeling or communication-usually to avoid disapproval by others, feelings of shame, or losing control of one’s impulses. The most common areas of inhibition involve: • inhibition of anger and aggression • inhibition of positive impulses (e.g., joy, affection, sexual excitement, play) • difficulty expressing vulnerability or communicating freely about one’s feeling and needs • or excessive emphasis on rationality while disregarding emotions As Rune Moelbak discusses “In the book “Meeting the Shadow”, poet Robert Bly speaks of life as a process of hiding ever more things in a bag we drag behind us. Over time the bag grows larger and larger. From having an initial 360-degree personality, we gradually discover that not all aspects of ourselves invite positive reactions. To keep our sense of being loved and liked, we therefore start stuffing our bag with all the parts that aren’t acceptable. Sadly, after we have gone through our childhood and adolescence, we end up with only a slice of ourselves out in the open. As Bly states, “We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourselves to put in the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again” Why We Lose Touch with Our Emotions: Diana Fosha, in her book “The Transforming Power of Affect” gives a good overview of some the events that can happen in a person’s life to make them lose touch with the full scope of their emotions. Generally speaking, our comfort with our own emotions stem from our experiences of others being able to handle them, or not. If others either fail to acknowledge our emotions, disapprove of them, or jump in to provide solutions prematurely, our emotions can become scary. Without the support of another who can help us express and process our emotions, our emotions can feel unwieldy and overwhelming. They can also be felt as shameful or as weak. In either case our “bag” of unwanted emotions begins to grow as a result of; • A mother who is overly anxious about our desire to explore the world, can unwittingly convey the message that exploration is dangerous. • A father who becomes sullen when we express criticism, can convey the message that criticism is hurtful and should be avoided at all cost. • A peer who laughs at us for confiding in them, can make us feel weak or ashamed about sharing our vulnerabilities.” These experiences lead to an Emotional Inhibition Schema that often drives the Detached Protector – the mode that you flip into when being asked to be vulnerable, to let out emotions or express yourself. Rune Moelbak describes how this can look. I would say our Detached Protector can be like • “a self-reliance so strong that we will never get hurt again by anyone, but may find ourselves lonely and unfulfilled • disowning our rightful indignation and anger and allow ourselves to be abused or mistreated • an inability to become excited because our fear of loss outweighs our courage to risk.” • a flat and unresponsive way of being in relationships – a wall that our partner can’t get over and a wall that traps us in An emotional inhibition schema often edits out one whole emotion, so life can only be experienced with mixes of sadness and joy, but perhaps not anger. Or anger and fear, but not joy. Like trying to create a range of colours using only 2 basic colours, our life can get very limited Each time we shrink from life or disavow a basic human emotion, we act against ourselves. The result of cutting off access to part of who we are will often lead to depression, or permanent numbness. As you understand your schema, the origins and the way it impacts you, you can start to develop your Healthy Adult; who can • give permission to feel and express a range of experiences • make sure you have safe people to express yourself to • see the impact of “bagging” all the parts you were told are not OK and can start to let them out, showing compassion, rather than judgment • write a letter to the person (or culture) who taught you it wasn’t OK to express yourself and tell them the impact that has had on you You will also need to find the Happy Child part of you that has been squashed or shamed. You might like to • try watching funny youtube clips and let yourself laugh out loud • try a dancing /drama/drawing class • get close to nature and allow yourself to be curious • play with children and let their spontaneity rub off • play a game from childhood with friends; Twister, charades, jumping in puddles • put some music on and dance The goal is being able to paint with all of the emotional colours you were born with and even make a mess sometimes Quotations are taken from a blog post by Rune Moelbak http://www.bettertherapy.com/blog/emotional-inhibition/ Ruth Holt, 2019
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