Emotions are a part of life and as much as we might like to separate out the feelings from the work, that is not very realistic. The truth is, we pretty much have to find a way to incorporate those emotions and feelings into the every day details of living life. When it comes to operating a home business, we might actually be able to make more room for feelings and emotions than if we were working the more “traditional” job and we might even find that we are better for it!
I find that working from my home business means merging family, personal life and work—not separating it out into little compartments. When a person is working at a company or a more traditional job, we have the “guise” of separation—we leave our homes and families and go to a different environment to work. We can often separate out those emotions as well and while we will experience other emotions on the job, it might not seem so “mixed up.” Working from home, however, can mean balancing the emotional attachments and interactions with the work. It might just be a matter of seconds between tending to a crying child to taking a call from a client. Or, we might still be reeling from an argument we had with a family member when we have to talk over and negotiate a contract or payment. We might actually be looking at the other person across the room.
It may not seem like a good thing, but I do believe that being able to experience emotions as they are coming up and working from home allows us to truly work through and feel the things we need to feel. I also think it can be healthy to have our lives interwoven as opposed to having everything separated out. After all, people have been living and working in the same space for centuries and it seems to me there was less stress and pressure so maybe being able to work through things and express our emotions while also working is a gift.
See Also: the MENTAL HEALTH Blog and the JOBS Blog