The Promise Letter
Happy Tuesday,
When something good happens, do you allow yourself to feel happy about it?
Do you allow yourself to feel elated or do you take some of that joy and stuff it back into the box from which it came so that you can’t feel it fully? You don’t allow yourself to get too happy just in case something were to go wrong; just in case it was too good to be true. Because, if you gave yourself permission to feel that joy to its fullest extent and something bad were to happen, you know deep down that you would then have to feel the full extent of that grief. Talk about scary. Sometimes we think it’s easier to tame the highest high so that we also don’t have to feel the lowest low.
But I ask, where is the life in that? Is life really meant to be spent squashing the emotions that float to the surface? Wouldn’t it be better to feel it all?
The problem is, the “bad” emotions/feelings are uncomfortable. In 2022, we don’t like uncomfortable. As a human race we are finding every possible way to remove any slight discomfort from our lives as if it were our main purpose.
Sitting there with our pain, our sorrow, or our anger and allowing it to be there in its full expression is the ultimate discomfort. So naturally, we push it to the side by also pushing away our joy.
It’s okay to give ourselves permission to feel the feelings that pop up in our daily lives. As a society we have adopted this false belief that a happy person means someone who is happy all the time. That’s not possible.
A happy person is someone who allows themselves to be angry, sad, jealous, etc. They welcome the feelings and after they pass, they don’t shame themselves for having those feelings. It's a part of being a human being. They ride the waves through the ups and the downs. They allow the river to flow freely rather than building a dam trying to block everything that floats downstream, ultimately causing backups or overflows.
Next time something good happens, allow yourself to feel all the joy.
Next time something bad happens, give yourself permission to feel all the pain.
Our emotions are signals from within, so I challenge you to pause and listen to them every once in a while.
Until next week,
Alissa
Current book(s) I’m reading:
The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate
Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin
Warrior of the Light by Paulo Coelho
3Q’s
Quote of the week:
“To deny your discomfort is ultimately to deny part of yourself.”
― Sterling Hawkins
Questions I’ve asked myself:
Do I allow myself to feel my happiness to its fullest extent?
Am I afraid of “negative” emotions?
Queue worthy tune I have on repeat:
“Are You Entertained?” by Russ (ft. Ed Sheeran)