Why ‘Feeling Your Feelings’ Is So Important For Our Mental Health, As Celebs Star In Awareness Campaign

A host of high-profile celebrities have joined forces for a photography campaign, raising awareness of mental health.

Kate Moss, Helena Bonham Carter, David Walliams, Anthony Joshua, Gary Barlow, Idris Elba, Kylie Minogue and Stephen Fry are among the famous faces shot with their eyes closed by photographer Ray Burmiston as part of Art of London’s Take A Moment 2022.

Feeling your feelings might mean saying no to the usual distraction techniques you rely on, says Anne-Sophie Fluri, neuroscientist and head of mindfulness at MindLabs:

“We might look to alcohol, food or sex to make ourselves feel better, or try to switch our minds off by binge-watching TV. This tendency to avoid difficult physical and emotional sensations is known as ‘experiential avoidance’.

"Some activities that might usually be seen as healthy — like working, exercising or socialising — can also become a crutch, or even staying in a job or relationship that isn’t right, to avoid feelings of uncertainty or loneliness.”

It may sound counterintuitive, but sitting with feelings such as sadness, anxiety or anger can actually help to alleviate them faster.

By accepting – and even welcoming – all kinds of emotions, we can learn to gradually diminish their power. At the same time, you can tune into what those feelings are trying to tell you.

How can you learn to accept, not avoid?

You might want to write a list and add to it whenever you find yourself trying to ‘numb out’. The next step is to pause when you feel a painful emotion and observe how it feels in your body. Is it a knot in your stomach? Tightness in your chest? Tears welling up?

Mindfulness meditation – focusing on your surroundings and physical sensations – can be a useful tool, Fluri says: “It can help bring to us back into our bodies and become more attuned to our emotional needs. It can also help us learn to sit with difficult feelings and identify thought patterns that aren’t serving us.”

This can be a challenging process, so don’t beat yourself up if you struggle or fall back on familiar distractions.

It can also help to seek support from someone trusted that you can talk to, who can help to promote healing and improve your mental health by speaking with a friend or expert in the field.