Episode 14: Atlas of the Heart

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You're listening to the Love Tidbits Podcast.  Where you'll discover a small, tasty, delightful, bite-sized tidbit of love. I'm your host, LeAnn Austin. 

Hey y'all, welcome to Love Tidbits, episode #14: Atlas of the Heart 

Brené Brown has a new book called Atlas of the Heart. I love it. It's a beautiful book that I highly recommend.

It's an Atlas per say of 87 emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. Brené says, "The anchor we are searching for is connection, and it is internal.  To form meaningful connections with others, we must first connect with ourselves.  But to do either, we must first establish a common understanding of the language of emotion and the human experience."

So Brené breaks down emotions into 13 sections and she starts each section off with, "the places we go when..." And then ties in all these 87 emotions. It's fascinating how she does this. Well, if discussing emotions or feelings is something that you want to avoid with a ten foot pole, which is kind of how I used to be. I didn't even know what a feeling was, let alone discuss it. But what I've learned about feelings the past five-ish years, there's actually some merit to learning about our feelings. 

So let's play a game.  Every day, and anytime during the day, I want you to pause for two minutes and notice what you're feeling. Just pause, anytime, every day.  As you're noticing what you're feeling, give it a name. And if you're not sure what name the feelings or emotions are, you can get Brené's book, or you can Google emotions and there's a kazillion of them. But name what you're feeling.  Is it, for example, stress, worry, excitement, frustration, bored, curious, hopeless, sad, compassion, guilt, lonely, anger, confusion, joy, and a million more.  Whatever it is, just name it, and then feel it in your body.

What I mean by this is pretend you're describing what you're feeling inside your body, to someone who has never felt an emotion inside your body, they have no idea. Like where is it located? Is it hard or soft? What's the texture? Maybe you think of a color when you're feeling it. Be really detailed and just describe it.

That's it. So that's the game.  Every day, pause for two minutes, notice what you're feeling, give it a name, and feel it in your body. Alright, so this is what I do every single day. And it has completely changed my life. This is why I created my Lovin Me Program for y'all to learn about and understand that our thoughts and feelings, end up as our results. And when we become aware of our emotions and thoughts, we can achieve the results we really want.  

Many of you go to a gym to build your physical muscles. Well, if you want to strengthen your mental and emotional muscles, try my Lovin Me Program, and we will make that happen. Just come try it for a month. It's only 29 bucks and I promise it will transform your lives. 

So back to Brené's book, there are lots of quotes that I love, but a favorite one is: "When we stop numbing and start feeling and learning again, we have to reevaluate everything, especially how to choose loving ourselves over making other people comfortable."  Hmmm, something to think about.  

Have a good one y'all, and here's to connecting with ourselves and joining Lovin Me.

If you would like to become an expert at loving yourself, check out my Lovin Me Program at leannaustin.com.