How to Feel Your Feelings with Simone Saunders

We’ve all been told to “feel our feelings,” but what does that actually mean, and how do you do it? Forrest talks with trauma therapist Simone Saunders about how to go from knowing your patterns to being able to do something about them when things get intense. They discuss what your nervous system does when it decides you're not safe, why the tools you've collected go offline in exactly the moments you need them, and how a sense of agency changes that equation. Simone walks through her three-step process for noticing a sensation, working out what it's asking for, and doing something different with it. They also talk about the functional freeze, what to do when you “don’t feel anything,” and how to relate to shame and grief. Key Topics: 00:00: Intro: overthinking, cognitive bypassing, and intellectualizing 4:42: What it means to “be in the body” 9:46: Bottom-up approaches and trauma 18:33: How to recognize disconnection and functional freeze 28:38: Moving out of a dictatorship and into a partnership with your body 34:51: How to actually feel your feelings 46:29: The difference between emotions and feelings 52:14: Meeting your needs 57:40: The limit of self-understanding, frameworks, and tools 1:00:07: Moving into experiments, titration, and when you feel too much or not enough 1:17:28: Recap Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors Level up your bedding with Quince. Go to https://Quince.com/BEINGWELL for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns. Visit https://Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at https://RocketMoney.com/BEINGWELL. MasterClass keeps adding new classes, so there’s never been a better time to get in. Get at least 15% off any annual membership at https://MasterClass.com/BEINGWELL Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices