Welcome to Lab 4 of an 8 part series that builds our capacity to get out of our own way, and intentionally align with the outcomes we are aiming for.

In Lab 3, we identified the rules and objections that keep us from acknowledging what we're actually feeling. Now we can take the next step: releasing what we've been carrying.

Releasing an emotion isn't venting, suppressing, or escaping it. It's something simpler and harder — locating the feeling, describing it, and allowing ourselves to fully experience it without resistance or story. That's it. The feeling moves through us in about 90 seconds when we stop fighting it.

The challenge is that we're drawn back to familiar feelings, even painful ones. Like a thermostat returning to a set temperature, we unconsciously seek out the emotional states we know — through the stories we tell, the news we consume, the drama we find ourselves in. Recognizing that pull is the first step to changing it.