Why Is It So Hard to Admit and Identify Your Feelings?

In this solo episode, Luke unpacks the deep-rooted reasons why many people struggle to admit and identify their emotions. Drawing from personal experience, cultural history, and research from Brené Brown, Chip Dodd, and others, Luke explores how emotional suppression has shaped us and why journaling is a crucial tool to break free from this cycle. He introduces the Holy Work Journaling Method and explains how acknowledging your feelings is a foundational step toward transformation.

Key Takeaways:

• Why We Suppress Emotions Luke shares how cultural factors—from wartime survival to corporate productivity—have led generations to view emotions as weakness, especially in Western culture.
• The Cost of Emotional Suppression Suppressed emotions don’t disappear—they resurface as anxiety, burnout, disconnection, and even physical health issues.
• The Power of Naming Your Feelings Luke’s personal story of finally identifying anxiety in counseling, and how Chip Dodd’s Eight Core Feelings framework gave him a language to understand what his heart was trying to say.
• Introducing the Holy Work Method How admitting your feelings is the first step in engaging the five ongoing forces of the Holy Work Method: acknowledging feelings, recognizing the pull, fighting the war of resistance, working through the wilderness, and making the decision to move forward.
• The Practice of Reflection Luke guides listeners through a reflective exercise to help them identify a recent emotion and connect it to one of the Eight Core Feelings.

Memorable Quotes:

• "Feelings aren’t the enemy—they’re a roadmap." – Luke LeFevre
• "Your needs will be met, either in healthy or unhealthy ways. The key is learning to recognize them." – Luke LeFevre
• "Learning to acknowledge your emotions isn’t weakness—it’s healing." – Luke LeFevre

Resources Mentioned:

• The Voice of the Heart by Chip Dodd
• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
• Holy Work 7-Day Journaling Challenge – holywork.com

Visit holywork.com to join the free 7-day Holy Work Journaling Challenge.