Abundance of Feelings
Being human means that you literally have an abundance of feelings and emotions. I think sometimes children are made to feel like certain feelings are not okay. As they age they learn to suppress those feelings and ultimately it results in depression, anxiety, addictions or illness.
When we begin to understand that all feelings are okay, that they are temporary we begin to free ourselves from the hold they have over us. The very first book I ever wrote, “It is Okay to Feel,” I wrote the entire book in 10 minutes after a meditation at a retreat. My original plan was to have one copy of the book in my classroom so that I could teach my students that all of their emotions were okay. Through connections I actually learned to self-publish on Amazon and my goal was if it helped one child then my book did it’s job. When ever I would read it to my students we would always have the most interesting conversations around our feelings and emotions that I never expected.
One time we were discussing the emotion of jealousy and the kids mentioned that sometimes they feel jealous and happy at the same time. They asked if they could have two emotions at once. My answer was of course. I asked them to explain what they meant. They said at birthday parties they are happy for their friends to get all the presents but at the same time sometimes they are jealous because they want some of the gifts too, so birthdays could be a bit confusing. I could not believe how insightful these kids were at only 9 years old.
When we open up discussions around feelings it can open up so many doors to healing. Helping kids to understand that it is okay to be angry, it is just not okay to hit someone on the playground is a big eye opener. There are adults who feel it is not okay to be angry because of how they were raised. How you channel that anger and consciously become aware of your triggers is what really matters. How would things shift if you gave yourself permission to be mad and that was okay. I bet allowing that anger to flow through (in a healthy way) would be very healing overall.
The good thing about feelings is that they are temporary, we can have a variety of emotions come and go in throughout the day sometimes in intense waves learn to become aware of the feelings that arise and what triggers different emotions. Sometimes we need to just take a moment and breathe when intense feelings arise.
Learn to see the beauty in all of your emotions. We wouldn’t know joy if we did not know sadness. There is a yin and yang to all of our feelings. Stop passing judgement on yourself for the feelings that you used to believe were negative.
This week take some time to really become aware of your feelings. Notice what triggers you. Notice how you feel when you first wake up in the morning. What feelings arise as you go throughout your day. What emotions arise when things do not go as you planned. Take time to really sit in that awareness you will begin to see patterns arise for you. At the end of each day reflect on your day and see how the feelings and emotions that arise for you shift throughout the week. Most importantly learn to let go of the feelings and emotions that are no longer serving you.
