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The Atlas of My Heart



 I am reading a book titled "Atlas of the heart" by Brené Brown. This book has identified about 87 emotions and has taken upon itself to describe and delineate it from each other. Especially those ones that we easily confuse with each other. The premise of this book is that if we can correctly identify an emotion that we are having and have a language to describe it, it helps us to navigate them better. I somehow am gravitating towards this central premise. I have always felt that my blog - which has become a place where I try to articulate what is going on with me has been strangely therapeutic. Especially when I go through a tumultuous experience, if I am able to access a vocabulary, a metaphor or a story through which I can transcribe what is happening within me to a sheet of paper, I find a liberating release. It is almost as if half of my issues have already been resolved/dissolved just by calling it out.

I wonder if it is because someone else is reading it and empathizing with what is happening within me? Does it feel therapeutic because I shared my experience with a rando on the internet? I suspect while this might have a part to play, mostly it is about the simple act of being aware of what's happening to me and acknowledging it. Just like how the Bible says: "The Truth shall set you free".

I also remember how in the Inner Engineering program, we are asked to write the homework. The homework being a simple journal of what has been the experience of the day. I specifically remember the point when Sadhguru says that not a single thing should happen to you without you knowing about. Don't try to change it, don't try to judge it, just observe what is happening within you and write it down.

I am revisiting this idea of awareness through a very western lens of psychology. I am feeling a renewed attraction towards vulnerability and want to introspect and share when and how I have experienced some of these emotions and thought patterns in the recent past.

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