In this episode Dona discussed: The importance of befriending your emotions Dona's personal journey to making friends with emotions Key takeaways: Emotions affect every part of our lives, it is where passion, creativity, and motivation come from. Befriending your emotions and letting your thoughts and feelings move and flow will bring ease and peace to your life. Communication without emotions distorts the message, so allowing yourself to express your emotions on your own helps you better understand your own and other people's emotions, as well as how to properly express them in a way that others can understand. There's nothing wrong with being different. Accepting that you have your own way of expressing yourself and your emotions will change your perspective on life and help you feel more confident. “When you become friends with your emotions, they become an integral part of your communication, an integral part of understanding yourself and not getting caught up in old or current beliefs that aren't true. ” – Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email her with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Special Current Offer: 30 Minute Discovery Session with Dona If you would like to speak to me personally to ask questions or perhaps address a current problem you are having, email me and I will send you a link to schedule a time to meet. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode Dona discussed: The difference between anxiety and panic How to deal with anxiety How to deal with panic Working with your emotions Key takeaways: Both anxiety and panic include symptoms like fight or flight, discomfort, racing heart rate, stomach pains, etc. Anxiety slowly builds up over time, and can lead to anxiety attacks, whereas panic is physical and is a present time believing that they are in danger. You can slow your anxiety back down by relaxing your body, taking deep breaths, and journaling. Many techniques that quiet the thoughts. Acceptance is the key to dealing with panic attacks. It's not about trying to slow down your body; it's about accepting that you're okay and not in danger. The more you allow the physicality of your emotions, the sooner you process it through and become more organic. Resisting emotions prolongs the process and causes other symptoms “When you make emotions your friend, your thoughts and feelings move and flow, ease and peace is in your life.” – Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email her with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Special Current Offer: 30 Minute Discovery session with Dona If you would like to speak to me personally to ask questions or perhaps address a current problem you are having, email me and I will send you a link to schedule a time to meet. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Dona discuss: Getting stuck with emotions and thoughts Wanting sex but the body and the mind aren’t working together Fight or flight response Key takeaways: Emotions sometimes cause us to get stuck. When we accept the emotion itself then we can process the cause of the emotion more readily.   There are many reasons why we get stuck or get frozen.  Sometimes it's either an unconscious idea or emotion that gets in the way.  The fight or flight response is an automatic physiological response to a stressful, past memory or terrifying experience. Dona goes through a technique of processing anger. "The beauty of working with and befriending your emotions is accepting them.” - Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email me with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Talk Directly to Dona Joy? If you would like a 30 minute Gift Discovery session with Dona Joy, let her know and she will send you a link to her scheduler. This session is all for you.  No sales or promotion. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Dona discuss: Are you responsible for other people’s feelings? Communicating with clear and concise language Where do hurt feelings typically come from? Owning our own feelings and emotions Key takeaways: We typically have thoughts and emotions in response to what other people say to us. However, we have no control over what other people feel or what they don't feel. Those feelings are yours and yours alone. When you communicate in clear and concise language, others are more inclined to respond in clear and concise language, resulting in a stronger bond between you. Expectations that are not met are the most common source of hurt feelings. Look at your own expectations behind the hurt feeling. Owning our own feelings and emotions helps us maintain a clear perspective, communicate effectively, and hear each other differently. "Owning your emotions and feelings as yours and yours alone creates much better communication.” - Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email me with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Talk Directly to Dona Joy? If you would like a 30 minute Gift Discovery session with Dona Joy, let her know and she will send you a link to her scheduler.  This session is all for you.  No sales or promotion. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode Dona discussed: What’s behind any problem or difficulty? Allowing your body to process emotions What if you don't know what you're feeling? Key takeaways: All problems and difficulties have a feeling or emotion behind it. Identifying emotions and feelings can reduce stress, make us feel more grounded, and keep us present at all times. Allow your body to process emotions in the body, giving them their own time and space. This can often help to bring clarity to your feelings and thoughts about the problem you're facing at the time. Even if you don't know what the feeling is, your body knows and wants to move. Allow your body to process emotions and then get to your thoughts to know what you know. Writing and journaling is one method to discover what you are feeling and thinking. “When you're able to listen to your body, and what the body wants, and allow it, then there's great freedom from the stress and the ability to move towards resolving the feelings and difficulties that you're having at the time.” - Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email her with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Special Current Offer: 30 Minute Discovery session with Dona If you would like to speak to me personally to ask questions or perhaps address a current problem you are having, email me and I will send you a link to schedule a time to meet. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode Dona discussed: Joy and happiness What brings a smile to our face and heart Laughter as a stress reliever Key takeaways Joy is an emotion that comes from the nonverbal, physical place in the body, and happiness is a state of being that includes both feelings and thoughts. Even if there isn't a physical smile, joy can be felt on the inside. You can always find something to put a smile on your face and heart despite not being in the most joyful or happy place. “Laughter stimulates various organs and increases oxygen levels. It activates and relieves stress response and suits tension. It also improves the immune system and is a natural painkiller. It is a coping technique that allows us to connect with others, which can significantly boost our mood.” - Article directly on Mayo Clinic website - “Stress relief from laughter, It’s no joke”: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-relief/art-20044456?fbclid=IwAR0HDvjGoyFtjz_GfrWU6Ir-H9etyXQvrOjsN6hopzb1hMMSFK4bI4DlmCA "It is important to accept your emotions and allow your body to express and move and then process your feelings and thoughts. However, it's also important to be in and allow and accept joy at the same time. It's an emotion, and like others provides motivation, creativity, and passion. ” - Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email her with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

About Jason Costelle: Jason is a 51-year-old businessman in corporate sales. He started working on making friends with emotions a few years ago and is sharing his journey from the inability to let certain emotions to acknowledging, allowing, and using emotions to go beyond some difficult behaviors. He learned how his stuck emotions have had a massive effect on him and his relationships. In this episode Dona and Jason discuss: Self-love and inner child relationship Vulnerability in relationships The importance of getting a hobby or something you’re interested in Key takeaways The key to self-love and healing an inner child relationship is recognizing that you have suffered traumas in the past, understanding how it is affecting you today, and becoming comfortable with your emotions. Emotions are not dangerous. Allowing your emotions to flow and recognizing that feeling sad and being vulnerable is normal will help you to do more with your love, and feel it within yourself, and certainly in a relationship. Having something that you enjoy doing or are passionate about could be your major coping mechanism in struggling to form your identity and not feeling emotions. "It's going to start with emotions, it's going to start with becoming okay with those and recognizing that you're not, and recognizing how you're not, and how it affects those around you. And once that awareness is there, you start losing the fear, you start moving towards the joy. And that to me is how we're born and how we're supposed to evolve.” - Jason Costelle Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email her with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Dona discusses: The meaning of not feeling anything Depression vs. sadness The truth about the thought that joy is good emotion and all the others are bad and negative What to do about depression Key takeaways Not feeling anything means your thoughts are engaged but not your emotions, and there is no passion, creativity, or motivation coming from your body. Depression is the lack of available emotion, while sadness, like all feelings, is the combination of emotion and thoughts. Emotions are physiological chemical responses in the body that all come from the same place and have the same foundation. We experience them differently and the emotions of mad, sad, and fear are not negative or bad. What makes them “negative” is when the thoughts label them as such and interact with our behaviors or beliefs, or actions. One way to cope with depression is to acknowledge that you don't feel any emotions, then begin adding movement slowly. "You can follow your dreams and make your goals. Become friends with your emotions, honor them, give them space to move, and our creativity, passion, and motivation will blossom.” - Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email me with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Dona discusses: Is grief an emotion or a feeling? Helping someone who’s grieving Allow the emotions and feelings to express how they want to express There is NO time limit on how long a person grieves. Key takeaways: Grief is a physiological emotion that includes all of the emotions. Grieving is not just sadness.  It includes many feelings at once. When you want to help someone who is grieving, be present and listen. Grieving is very personal and every person and even every set of circumstances is different. Grieving is a whole-body experience and can be difficult to explain. "We grieve differently for different lengths of time, for different situations, for different people and it's OK. The important thing is to honor that emotion or feeling process.” - Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email me with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Dona discussed: How to know if you’re connected to your emotions The truth about the way you can feel Feeling as a conscious awareness of your emotions The truth about controlling your emotions Key takeaways Emotions are connected to everything. You can tell if you're having an emotion through your behavior, belief, or the habits you use to cope with it. It is NOT true that the only way you can feel is if you are consciously aware of your emotions. It’s because you are not consciously aware of emotions most of the time, and most people cannot identify when they are feeling them. The feeling is NOT a conscious awareness of your emotions because feelings are thought and emotion, and emotion is a physical, biological part of a feeling. Emotions and feelings are beyond our control. We can change and move them, but we don't just control them. "There are a lot of elements that go along with feelings, and thoughts. So as we change how we feel, we're also changing how we think. And we're changing how we behave.” - Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email me with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

About Jesy Bowling: Jesy is a professional photographer specialising in Boudoir photos. She started as a portrait and nature photographer, then later on moved into boudoir photography, wherein she realised that she sees beauty in everybody. Jesy started getting to know her emotions a few years ago and is sharing her journey. In this episode Jesy talks candidly of her experience of making emotions her friend: Recognizing your emotions Being comfortable with anger Dealing with sadness Doing your passion Key takeaways The key to managing emotions is to be able to recognize them and then move them, rather than just shutting them down automatically. There is nothing wrong with being angry… Jesy found that having a safe place to be alone and BE with her sadness is how she is able to process them. Emotions and feelings need a bit of boost sometimes.  Owning them and recognizing them is important and so is having things to be passionate about whether it be a hobby or just something that brings a smile to your heart. "Life not recognizing my emotions was just like set on autopilot, because I wasn't allowing myself to really immerse myself in anything. So when you're pressing those emotions down, you're not really seeing the whole picture” - Jesy Bowling Connect with Jesy Bowling: Facebook: Studio 302 East Instagram: @studio302frankfort/ Email: Jesy@jesybphotography.com Phone: 502-471-6645 Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email her with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Dona discuss: Emotion vs intuition What is anxiety Controlling your thoughts Stopping unwanted thoughts Key takeaways Intuition is knowing something without reason or evidence, whereas emotion is the sensation in the body or physical movement that has become a feeling and causes us to feel. Anxiety is a feeling that involves both physical and mental components (fear plus thought). The act of allowing, acknowledging, and observing your thoughts will give you a chance to make a decision about them, then you can change them and own them. The more you are committed in doing the steps in disrupting your thought process, the sooner your unwanted thoughts will stop. Commitment is the key. "When you know and believe that you have a choice of your thoughts and you allow emotions to be conscious, intrical part of your daily function, then you are a powerhouse within yourself .” - Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email me with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Dona discuss: How do emotions work The importance of cortisol levels to our body Where do emotions come from Why does Dona call emotions “the friend within” Key takeaways Any movement facilitates not only the dispersion of the cortisol but also provides an expression of the physicality of the emotion. And once you get used to moving physically with your emotions, you will be able to say to your body how would you like to express this emotion. It's important to disperse your cortisol during and after an emotional period for your mental, spiritual, and physical wellness. Like the rest of the body, the process of emotions is movement. Just like the literal definition of a friend, which pertains to a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, befriending your emotions means to have a bond and trust. This let us learn to trust our body that it knows what to do with emotions, and glass movement. "Making friends with emotions will allow you to integrate emotions more effectively with feelings, spirit, and thoughts. Emotions are where passion, creativity, and motivation come from.” - Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://www.facebook.com/djairey Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey To submit questions: Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makingsenseofemotions/ Email me with "Podcast Question" in the subject line. Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

With all the challenges we are facing in today's world, our mental well-being is at stake, making some of us experience having trouble with expressing our emotions. In Emotions: The Friend Within Podcast, you will hear from Dona Joy Airey and her guests and invited experts about their insights and ways of working with emotions. With her 32 years of private practice as a psychotherapist/transformational coach and her own experiences in shutting her emotions down at a very young age, Dona has both personal and professional knowledge and understanding to share with you. You will surely be inspired by this podcast. Join her in exploring and making sense of your emotions each week. "Just like your thoughts are always present, so are your emotions, which empower your passion, motivation, and creativity." - Dona Joy Airey Connect with Dona Joy Airey: Website: https://donajoyairey.com/ Email: dona@transformingwithin.com Phone: 502-420-9911 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donajairey Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.