Emotionally Numb but Crying: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Emotionally Numb but Crying, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Practices that may help
- Holding joy and sadness simultaneously
When you notice a joyful experience that also carries loss, resist the urge to choose one emotion over the other.
Mono no Aware: The Pathos of Things - Stop numbing vulnerability
Notice how you numb hard feelings — and feel them instead, because you can’t numb selectively.
Daring Greatly, Made Practical - Notice and name mixed or contradictory emotions simultaneously
When something significant happens, look for two or more emotions that coexist — even contradictory ones.
The Feeling Wheel: Building Emotional Vocabulary - Listen empathically and validate the feeling
Reflect the emotion you see accurately before you do anything else.
Emotion Coaching (John Gottman) - Full presence with something passing
Deliberately be present for the last or near-last moment of something — a season, a stage, a relationship — without numbing.
Mono no Aware: The Pathos of Things - Come up from shutdown
When you are numb or foggy below the window, use stimulation to bring energy back up.
The Window of Tolerance: Your Optimal Arousal Zone - Stop surface acting
Recognize when you’re masking emotions at work or in relationships, and find low-cost outlets for what you actually feel.
Radical Honesty About Emotions, Made Practical - Mindful awareness of suffering
Hold painful feelings in balanced awareness — neither suppressing them nor being swept away by them.
Self-Compassion, Made Practical - Identifying and expressing feelings
Name the actual emotion underneath, distinct from thoughts disguised as feelings.
Nonviolent Communication (NVC), Made Practical - Havening to soften acute grief activation
Use gentle touch and brief distraction to lower the physiological intensity of grief surges.
Self-Havening: Calming the Nervous System Through Touch
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- At my kid’s graduation, at a goodbye, I feel proud and gutted in the same breath and I don’t know what to do with both
- The second something gets uncomfortable I reach for the phone or the wine or just more to do, and lately I’ve noticed the good stuff has gone flat too
- Something big happened and I feel two opposite things at once
- My kid is sobbing about something that seems so small, and every instinct in me wants to explain why it’s not a big deal
- Something I love is clearly ending
Related concerns
- Feeling Emotionally Numb But Crying
Notice how you numb hard feelings — and feel them instead, because you can’t numb selectively.
Stop numbing vulnerability
- Emotionally Numb Cant Cry
Notice how you numb hard feelings — and feel them instead, because you can’t numb selectively.
- Why Do I Feel Numb But Still Cry
Notice how you numb hard feelings — and feel them instead, because you can’t numb selectively.
- Emotionally Numb Why
Notice how you numb hard feelings — and feel them instead, because you can’t numb selectively.
- Why Do I Cry Then Feel Numb
Notice how you numb hard feelings — and feel them instead, because you can’t numb selectively.
- Why Do I Feel Numb And Cant Cry
Notice how you numb hard feelings — and feel them instead, because you can’t numb selectively.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.