Emotional Avoidance
Exploring what we feel instead of automatically running from it.
Emotional avoidance is the attempt to escape, suppress, numb, control, distract from, or otherwise avoid unwanted internal experiences. In psychological research, the broader concept of experiential avoidance includes efforts to avoid unwanted thoughts, feelings, memories, or bodily sensations. Avoidance can bring short-term relief, which is one reason it can become habitual.
Explore what we feel instead of automatically running from it.
I allow myself to feel what I need to feel.
- 1
What emotions do I most often avoid, and what do I typically do instead of feeling.
- 2
What am I afraid might happen if I stopped distracting myself and fully acknowledged those emotions?
- 3
How does emotional avoidance show up in my habits — staying busy, scrolling, overthinking, joking, withdrawing.
- 4
Which situations or relationships tend to trigger my strongest urge to disconnect from what I am.
- 5
What would allowing one uncomfortable emotion to exist without immediately fixing, judging, or escaping it look.
What emotion did I try not to feel today, and what might it have been asking me to notice?