Feelings are annoying.
Well, some of them are. It would be
nice to feel happy all the time. Isn’t that what we really want? It’s so
painful when hurt feelings arise. It’s so painful when sadness arises. It’s so
painful when anger arises. What do we do with this feelings? Tell them to go
away? Push them down? (Become depressed!) Ignore them? Ride over them with
thoughts?
Sometimes we feel like we should feel this way and therefore
don’t wish to get out of it. You know, those times when grief is here and it
feels like a betrayal to the other person if we let go of grief. And feeling
sorry for someone, sometimes feels like a should feeling…..we should feel
sorry. Then guilt can arise because the feeling goes. Complicated eh????
It really is impossible to figure out the right thing to
feel. So give up trying. O..oh! How does that feel? Like you are not
responsible? Like you are not a good person? Oh gee!! Can’t win.
What if you could really honour yourself by feeling whatever
arises in the moment, with no self-judgement about how that is, or whether it
is right? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm Well, that
would be living in truth. But stuff gets in the way, doesn’t it? Stuff like the
expectations we sense from others, and the expectations we have of ourselves.
The blame we carry around for the things we think we can’t change. The emotions
we have unconsciously held onto.
Actually, if you can trust yourself enough to welcome
whatever feeling arises, this is the way to freedom. In our society, we so
don’t honour feelings. We tend to criticise those who allow too much emotion,
and especially if the emotion drives some undesirable action. And we fear
emotion.
The secret, though, is to feel them in your body – no need
to let them out, no need for the emotional energy to drive you to say things
you don’t want to say, no need for emotions to be acted out in inappropriate
behaviours, no need for them to stifle you. Just feel them wherever they show
up in your body. And after that, if you wish to speak of them, then do, from
the stillness that arrives after the feeling.
You can do it.