You Don't Need To Fix This Feeling

(bright music) Headspace Studio. (bright music) Hey friends, it's Rosie here. Welcome back to Radio Headspace. (bright music) The other day I was at the grocery store early, right when they opened. That's my time. No crowds, no parking lot chaos, just spaciousness and the sound of refrigerators waking up for the day. I was cruising down the cereal aisle, scanning boxes I didn't really need when out of nowhere a tiny human came barreling in. He was maybe three years old, running at full speed, arms flailing like he was trying to take flight behind him, his mom, chasing after him, half laughing, half pleading. He didn't see me. He ran straight into my leg and bounced back on the floor. "Oh no," I said, instinctively reaching down. (bright music) He looked up at me, stunned for a split second, and then came the cry. Full body, immediate, no hesitation, tears wailing, the type of cry that fills the entire store and a shrill you feel on your entire body. His mom scooped him up and started consoling him. "You're okay, you're okay, you're okay." She said, rocking him gently. But the more she tried to calm him down, the louder he got. His face was red. His body rigid. His little fists clenched like he was holding onto something much bigger than him. I stepped aside and kept watching for a moment. Not in a judgmental way, just curious. Because what I was seeing was emotional life in its most honest form. There was no filter, no story about whether his reaction was appropriate, no effort to minimize it or make it socially acceptable. He felt something and his whole system expressed it. (bright music) We all start that way. When something hurts, we cry. When something surprises us, we react. When something overwhelms us, we release it. It's direct. It's unbridled. And it just moves through us. But somewhere along the way, we learn to do something different. We learn to manage the reaction, to compress it, to make it more palatable. We trade the full body cry for a tight jaw and a quick, I'm fine. But that little kid, he just felt it. Now I'm not suggesting we all start having full meltdowns in the cereal aisle. I've watched several online videos of full-grown adults in meltdown and it's not awesome. There's a reason we develop regulation. But I do think that there's something we forget in the process. Sometimes we just need to let the feeling complete itself. What I noticed in that little boy was that the more his mom tried to quiet him quickly, the more his system resisted. Not because she was doing anything wrong, but because his body hadn't finished the wave yet. (bright music) And it made me wonder, how often do I do that to myself? How often do I feel something rise and I immediately try to shut it down? It's not a big deal. Just move...