I doubt that this blog has reached any aliens or sentient animals, so I think I can safely assume that if you are reading this, you are human.
Let me fill you in on something about humans: we feel lots of things. All the time. Our emotions range all over the place and we have very little control over it. It is totally normal as a human to feel happy one moment and angry the next. Feeling things is kind of what we do.
(This is my representation, not anatomically correct)
This being said, we expect a lot out of ourselves when we limit our emotions to what we want to feel. For me, I am working through allowing anger as a normal human emotion. I have always seen anger as bad and something I should ignore or avoid. I still think that anger can lead to hurtful actions, but anger itself is part of life. Expecting myself never to get angry not only is completely ludicrous, but it doesn’t help when I do get angry because I just keep thinking, “I shouldn’t be mad. It’s okay. I’m fine.” I might as well try to put a campfire out with gasoline!
When we grieve, there is a whole range of emotions that come along. However, we sometimes think that all we should feel is sadness. Sometimes we feel that other people are judging us if we feel anything else.
I have felt myself trying to make myself look and feel sad sometimes when people ask me how I am doing, because I feel like that’s what they are expecting and what I “should” be feeling!
In the movie “Inside Out” (which is a deeply profound movie about grief), Riley tries to limit herself only to happiness, but sadness keeps coming around. She can’t move on until she allows herself to feel sadness. I think that is a profound message about all emotions.
Feeling only the “right” emotions all the time would have to be a supernatural power.
Even Christ, the only perfect person I believe to have walked this earth, experienced a range of human emotions! He felt sadness (John 11:35), joy (John 15:10-11), gratitude (John 6:11), anger (Luke 19:45-46), and even discouragement (Matthew 27:37-38).
What I want to tell you today is that what you are feeling is okay.
If you feel relief, that’s okay.
If you feel hurt, that’s okay.
If you feel anger, that’s okay.
If you feel humor, that’s okay.
If you feel gratitude, that’s okay.
If you feel happiness, that’s okay.
If you feel sadness, that’s okay.
You are human, and that’s okay. That is one thing that unites us.
How are you feeling today?
1 comment
Hi Stephanie!
I think we all are superheroes and we do all experience the right emotions at the right time! Let me explain: I believe emotion is spiritual communication we have with ourselves. Emotions are amoral. They are neither right or wrong. Often times we feel things and want to blame other people and make them responsible for our emotions. But that’s not how it works. They are simply communication signals (like flags) trying to get our attention so we can understand ourselves a little bit better. Or be able to discern truth. Or to let us know something is wrong and needs to be addressed or fixed. Or simply help us know what we like or don’t like. Let’s just face it, some emotions are just down right uncomfortable to experience and we don’t like it. But if we stop, acknowledge and accept the emotion, then listen… it can be a great teacher. It’s our sensitivity to our emotions that gives us great power to act in truth, or rather, act in love.
Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing your emotions and experiences with us!
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Little Teardrop Co. replied:
I like your thought that we are all superheroes! I agree that emotions are to be treated with curiosity and validation. The point I was trying to make is that our emotions don’t live up to our or others’ expectations most of the time very well. Thank you for your well-thought out response!