Get Real with Your Emotions: Why Rationalising and Coping Mechanisms Hinder Healing

Get Real with Your Emotions: Why Rationalising and Coping Mechanisms Hinder Healing

We've all had moments where we feel overwhelmed by our emotions and have reached for the coping mechanism that works best for us. Whether it's burying our feelings deep down or distracting ourselves with something else, we all have a defence mechanism that helps us cope with the difficult moments in our lives. While these coping mechanisms may seem like a solution at first, it's important to recognise how they might be hindering our healing in the long run. In this blog post, we're going to explore why it's important to be honest with ourselves and our emotions, rather than shutting them down with coping mechanisms.

Understanding Defence Mechanisms

Defence mechanisms are essentially psychological strategies that individuals use to cope with difficult situations, emotions, or realities. Often, these defense mechanisms are unconscious and automatic responses that we don't even realize we're using. Some common defence mechanisms include repression, denial, projection, fixation, and rationalisation.

While defence mechanisms may be effective in the short term, they often prevent us from processing our emotions in a healthy way long term. This can lead to increased stress, anxiety, and depression in the long run.

It is also essential here to approach our coping mechanisms with deep respect. These coping mechanisms have been employed as survival strategies. They helped us survive when we were going through experiences that were tough - but now you have the choice and freedom to be honest with yourself, seek support if you need and allow true healing to occur.

The Importance of Honesty

It's essential to be honest with ourselves about how we feel, rather than rationalizing or denying our feelings. We may choose to push our emotions aside because we're afraid of what they might mean, or we may be too caught up in our coping mechanisms to face our true emotions. However, avoiding our emotions only prolongs our healing process and makes it more difficult in the long run.

When we're honest with ourselves about our emotions, we're better equipped to handle the stress and challenges in our lives. We're able to identify the root cause of our emotions and work towards a healthier way of processing and coping with them. We open to healing these issues and releasing their symptoms from our bodies and lives. 

The Negative Impact of Coping Mechanisms

While coping mechanisms may seem like a helpful solution, they often prevent us from truly addressing our emotions. For example, if we choose to distract ourselves with work, social media, or other activities, we may be able to avoid our emotions temporarily. However, once the distractions fade away, we're left with the same emotions we were trying to avoid.

Coping mechanisms also prevent us from truly learning and growing from our emotions. When we're honest with ourselves about our emotions, we can identify patterns and triggers that may be causing these emotions. This allows us to develop healthy coping mechanisms that can help us manage our emotions in the long run.

The Benefits of Being Honest with ourselves

When we're honest with ourselves about our emotions, we're able to achieve a sense of authenticity and self-awareness. This can lead to increased emotional intelligence, better relationships, and a healthier sense of self-esteem.

By confronting our emotions head-on, we're also able to identify areas of our lives that may need improvement. This can help us make positive changes and develop a healthier sense of self.

Finally..

In conclusion, it's essential to recognise how our coping mechanisms may be hindering our healing in the long run. By being honest with ourselves about our emotions, we can develop healthy coping mechanisms that allow us to manage our emotions in a healthy way. While it may be uncomfortable at first, being honest with ourselves about how we feel is essential for our emotional wellbeing and overall growth as individuals. So take a moment to reflect on your emotions and ask yourself, "Am I being honest with myself, or am I relying on coping mechanisms to avoid my emotions? How do I truely feel about ….?”

Getting honest with yourself is courageous, especially if you have been employing coping mechanisms as survival strategies due to deep traumas. Take this at the pace you feel comfortable and always reach out to a practitioner or support system if you need, you are not alone.  Keep an eye out for following posts, where we will go into how to spot signs that you are using coping mechanisms to avoid uncomfortable emotional experiences.

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