When we scroll through our social media feed or stroll the bookstore aisle it’s in our face to “Be our Best”– through memes, book titles and the latest life hacks it’s all about being positive and striving forward.

I get it. I’m  a life coach. As a life coach that’s what we encourage — the best life hacks to catapult our lives and the lives of our clients forward.

I think we over look the value of feeling the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. Someone upsets you, feel mad– your heart is pulled in ten directions before it’s broken apart, feel sad.

Yes, there is  affine line in feeling and camping out in our pain and replaying it over and over — this only keeps us stuck – but taking the time to learn from the darker feelings whirling inside of us is beneficial. Our emotions are our teachers.

Rather than glossing it over, putting on our big girl pants, what if you got mad or cried first?

Here are some ways to honor and grow from feeling your emotions?

• Journal your thoughts and feelings — get them out on paper. This cathartic practice moves energy and brings things to the surface so that they can be experienced and offer life lessons not to mention healing.
• Take notice of the times you put food in your mouth or pour yourself a drink — what is the emotion behind the action?
• Watch a movie you know will bring on the water works and allow yourself to use up the box of tissues.
• Simply recognize your emotion and don’t label it as a bad thing — awareness is everything.

When I get out on paper what is bottled up inside my emotions are expressed and not stuffed down finding a place to reside in my body. The more I respect the feelings within the less of a hold they have over me. If I speak out my sadness, I don’t sit in it. If I create something out of my anger — artwork, a complete project, a conversation with a loved one — I don’t allow the anger to win. I win by learning from it’s message — honoring its voice in a  way that doesn’t harm myself or others.

It’s important to pull up your big girl pants — find your best self, tap into what is possible, but learning from our emotions — the bad and the good — is a necessary part of the process.. Please don’t gloss over the uncomfortable for it holds precious value.

As you scroll through social media and your life — stop and breathe it all in — the good, the bad, the ugly. And as you dare to be amazing, are your own super hero and shine like the bright star that you are please know that it’s okay to be sad, mad, annoyed or anything else you are feeling. Be yourself in the moment — no more or more less — and that is perfectly okay.

 

Cheers, Jenny