Bottled Up

As I was eating my lunch in my office today, I went to open up my kombucha and watched the bubbles quickly rush to the surface with an impending eruption. I quickly secured the lid and watched the bubbles settle. I did this a few more times, until I finally needed to find a safe place to open the kombucha (over a sink). Why am I telling you this story about my saga with kombucha today? Because it so perfectly encapsulates our relationship with our emotions at times.

When we feel difficult emotions, we have the tendency to bottle them up and keep adding more to the bottle, like carbonation in kombucha, to the point where there is too much pressure. The pressure doesn’t go away just because we don’t open the bottle, it just gets to the point where it rushes out in a way we weren’t intending it to or in situations that don’t work for that amount of pressure release.

By slowly opening the bottle, I was able to release some of the pressure and then contain it with the cap and let it settle, until I was able to take the bottle to a safe place to let it spill out. When I finally released all the pressure, it didn’t make the whole bottle explode, it reached a point where it stopped bubbling and I still had a pretty full bottle of kombucha. Sometimes, we feel like if we feel these difficult emotions that we have been bottling up, we won’t ever stop feeling them. But you can find a balance between letting them out slowly and containing them and letting them out in a safe environment and eventually you will feel settled.

I want to invite you to think about some coping strategies you can use to help contain your big emotions when the pressure has built up too much and to think of ways that you can let some of them release, so the pressure doesn’t overwhelm you and/or your environment.

As always, take what is helpful and leave the rest. I hope you have the week you need.