As human beings we all have the right to feel the way we feel. Happiness, anger, sadness, whatever the emotion may be you have a right to every one of them. Emotions aren’t necessarily bad or good. They are just, well, emotions, so don’t try to hide them. Other people around you may have a hard time dealing with your emotions but that is likely because they can’t deal with their own. Others may tell you not to be angry, or sad or even happy. Don’t listen to them. Feel what you are feeling. That’s what life is all about.

I am currently dealing with the loss of someone very important in my life and find myself climbing up and down the emotional scale. I find myself feeling better at times, and other times I have to force myself through the day. A few days ago I was having dinner with my parents and we were talking about the situation. I just broke down and couldn’t stop myself from coming to tears. I felt helpless, sad, angry and alone. My dad yelled at me that I’m taking things way too serious and practically ordered me to pull myself together. But there was no reason for me to pull myself together; I’ve lost someone whom I was extremely close to for the last 14 yrs of my life. And I was deeply feeling the loss.

Consider This

One of my mentors told me that emotions are contained in every single cell in your body. Considering the truth of that, then the reasons people get depressed, stressed out and sick is because they deny or ignore their emotions. So unless we acknowledge our emotions, face them head on and allow ourselves to feel them, they’ll get bottled up inside and will eventually manifest themselves into emotions that are even harder to control. When you can fully embrace the emotions you feel, you can more readily accept what goes on in life.

Reflections

Do you deal with your emotions head on, or do you suppress them?

My Request

Go ahead – get angry, sad, depressed, joyful, happy or whatever you feel. Emotions are signals of life and no emotion is either right or wrong; it is simply your judgment of the emotion that makes it good or bad. Like my current sadness, even though it is extremely painful I don’t considerate it bad. When you fully allow yourself to feel the emotion, you are more able to respond to it. And when you can respond rather than react, you retain your power.

Notable Quotes

“To give vent now and then to his feelings, whether of pleasure or discontent, is a great ease to a man’s heart.” – Francesco Guicciardini

“One’s suffering disappears when one lets oneself go, when one yields – even to sadness.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Emotion turning back on itself, and not leading on to thought or action, is the element of madness.” John Sterling