Waves of Emotion

The validation and compassion you send to your child, your dog, your loved one, a news story, I want you to direct that to yourself, while you read this article. You are not alone. You are loved.

Emotions. What to do with all those emotions? First, every emotion has a beginning and a middle and an end but even more so:

This emotion you are experiencing right now is providing you with important information.

And those hard emotions, the not so pretty feeling overwhelmed want to scream with exhaustion that emotion is important too.

Experiencing a wave of sadness or anger, or even fury, is healthy. The emotion is providing you with information. Unfortunately we all are taught these intense emotions are negative, and we bury them. But once buried we end up in a dangerous position. As these emotions help us navigate what is healthy and unhealthy, what to go towards and what to redefine.

For example, if you never felt anger, you would not know when to draw a boundary, when to speak up, when to walk away. Anger is the emotion that helps you navigate a situation, and joy also helps you navigate a situation. When we blunt emotions, we place blinders on our lives. When we embrace these emotions, we are empowered. Our work is to empower emotions, to name them, and to be curious. Within embracing them and moving thru them, you disrupt stagnation and you end up on the other side of the emotion. Moving thru anger, what does that look like, it can be literal, be angry while working out, or it could be a deep breath and allowing the anger to reside within you and watch as it passes. A wave has a beginning, middle and end. To end the emotion we ask for another emotion to come in, the opposite emotion to join with the emotion.

The most authentic experience is the mixed experience, I like these parts of this situation and not these. For example, to 100 per cent love your life 100 per cent of the time, is not authentic. Mental health and wellness is to enjoy 60-70 per cent of your life. And that can take time, therapy or some other avenue towards healing, and courage to be curious and feel.

Written by Zoe Hicks

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion," the Dalai Lama wrote in The Art of Happiness. Dalai Lama XIV