"You may be familiar with a particular feeling because you were exposed to it often while you were growing up. Maybe you were raised by an anxious parent who constantly warned you about the potential dangers that surrounded you. You may find yourself constantly bracing for something to go wrong or perseverating about the future and things that haven't even happened yet. That might mean you're habituating to worry and fear."
"Maybe your insecurity persistently leads you to doubt your self-worth, question your decisions, and habituate to hopelessness or shame. These patterns may be adaptations from your childhood and adolescence, what you learned, experiences you've had, and beliefs you held that thrust you into that default position. The very way you learned to cope in the past may have benefited you by providing safety, security, and a sense of perceived empowerment. As an adult, they don't necessarily serve you in the same way anymore."
Emotional habits form from upbringing, environment, and experiences, creating familiar baseline feelings. Childhood adaptations can provide safety or perceived empowerment yet later become maladaptive. Identifying the feeling one most often returns to clarifies whether that state aligns with desired life outcomes. Common habitual states include worry, fear, hopelessness, shame, and insecurity. Recognizing which emotion is being practiced enables intentional efforts to unlearn and replace that default. Persistent practice and deliberate change can shift the emotional baseline toward states that better support adult goals and wellbeing.
Read at Psychology Today
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