You're not overreacting - You're over repressing | and how to find true inner peace
The hidden force controlling your emotions
One sure way to know that you are ready for your next level of expansion, is when something causes you to overreact... Way more than what the moment warrants.
Before we dive into this any further, I think it’s important to mention that overreaction is not always loud. Sometimes it looks like shutting down, numbing or hovering above your own body.
As uncomfortable as these moments are, one of the best ways to see them is as invitations from your sacred doppelganger (i.e. your shadow self) that is pointing the way to the next stage of your evolution.
Seeing the unseen and feeling the unfelt
The silent collective pandemic that we are currently working on undoing is emotional repression.
This is work that you can’t really escape if you are devoted to your own expansion.
The emotions you aren’t willing to express and the hurt that still hides in the shadow, will find distorted ways to be heard if you aren’t willing to meet them consciously and to repair what was broken a long time ago.
That’s the reason why I say that overreaction is only the smoke. Over repression is where the real issue is at… And this is an understatement.
The voices that emerge when you lose your ground
What are the voices that emerge when you lose your ground? When you explode or shut down out of the blue… Most people carry a version of the following:
“I’m too sensitive.”
“I shouldn’t feel this way.”
“I’m overreacting again.”
And because of that, the explosion or repression is often met with inner judgement. One that is probably the echo of shaming voices you received from the past.
Yet the true peace and inner freedom you crave happens when you arm your heart with curiosity, so that you can explore what ignited the fire.
And when you are willing to do that, the doors to true integration open widely.
Your emotional recalibration
In this week’s episode of ENHEARTENED, I sit down with Dan McLintock, co-founder of the Kiloby Inquiries, for an in-depth conversation about emotional repression, the silent force that distorts our ability to be heart-led, shapes our identities, and keeps us from true peace.
Here are a few golden threads from the conversation:
Repression is not the absence of emotion, it’s the fear of it. And what we bury eventually rules us.
Addictions are not moral failings, they’re adaptations. Often, they’re a desperate attempt to regulate what our bodies were never allowed to feel.
Nervous system regulation techniques are essential. But if you’re only using them to soothe away tension without meeting the emotion underneath, it is not conducive to healing and integration.
Clean anger is sacred. It's the fire that says: “I will no longer abandon myself.”
And perhaps most counterintuitively: healing begins when you stop trying to “fix” your reaction and start giving compassionate permission to the part of you that’s terrified to feel.
This episode is medicine if you’ve ever felt like:
You have to “keep it together” for others
Your emotions make you unsafe
You’re stuck in cycles of people-pleasing or quiet resentment
Or you’ve tried all the healing tools, but still feel disconnected from your own aliveness
Episode 14 of ENHEARTENED with Dan McLintock is Live
*PS: If you find value in the HeartCast, please support the show by subscribing and leaving a review on your favorite streaming platform.
🎥 Watch and subscribe on YouTube.
🎧 Listen & Subscribe:
Spotify:
Apple Podcasts:
In gratitude and reverence,
— Xavier
hysterical is historical !