Day Twenty-seven

I have to admit, things didn't go so well today. Dave and I went on holiday to Avignon in Provence, and I was so distracted with the packing and travelling, I didn't have time to check out what the day's mission was supposed to be. So once I got to read it, I had a few hours to put it into practice.

The task was to act with emotional intelligence - noticing and naming the emotions I, and other people I encounter, were feeling.

Now, I'm really bad at this stuff. My first reaction when I encounter an emotion I don't enjoy too much is to stifle it straight away and hope that it never comes back. I do the same with other people - if somebody else is beset by grief or whatever, I want to do everything I can immediately to make it go away. One of the (surprisingly) few negative habits that boarding school left me with, I guess. It does run in the family a bit anyway.

So I made a start, and realised that most of the emotions I feel, I can't really name properly. It felt like I was starting to pull the cork out of a whole bottle of packed, wriggling woodlice.

I don't think just one task or one day is going to solve the whole deal. At least I know it's something I need to work on.