Sometimes there are so many feelings swirling around inside it feels like a giant tangle. Like a rope or thread that has gotten mixed up and knotted. I cannot tell the end from the middle. I cannot tell which feeling dominates. I cannot tell myself where to start.
Happiness. Anger. Grief. Jealousy. Sadness. Frustration. Elation. Fear. Hope. A tangled mess. Which feeling do I feel the most or the least? It is hard to tell when it is all a jumbled mess. If I start pulling on the edges and aggressively try to untangle it tends to tighten up and get worse.
But, if I gently pull and shift and move each piece I can feel the tension or softness of each section as I go. It may start to loosen and unravel. Interesting, I think.
If I were my own best friend I would remind myself to feel all the feelings. Like a tangled mountain of string, take each piece gently and slowly work my way along the string. It will start to unravel and open up. I am in that tangle but sometimes in order to get out I need to focus on each feeling. Let it be felt and touched and seen. What is tangled can become free if I put in the gentle time and effort.
Do you ever feel tangled?
If I were my own best friend... 
I love this analogy. I sometimes feel a big knot in my stomach which usually relates to big fear based emotions. Your suggestion of sitting mindfully with the tangled mess, feeling it is a useful tool for processing these feelings. Thanks Rachel for sharing your insights.
It is interesting to me how the negative emotions can really color a tangle and take over, but once I sit and sort through it there is so much more positive and peaceful hiding in the mess. đŸ™‚
I’ve recently felt enormously tangled. That’s a good way to put it. As well as untangling emotional piece by piece, I realized I needed to identify and prioritize the most impactful tangle. This required making tough decisions and an important choice. From there, the rest of the tangled mess began untangling almost by itself.