Feeling feelings.

 

When I read this quote for the first time, I wanted to shout "AMEN!" at my computer screen. Truthfully, I wanted to scream it to the universe. Perhaps if it ever gets printed on a t-shirt, I'll buy it. :)
 

There are times when I love that I feel deeply, but there are times when I dislike it so much. I cry at the ASPCA commercials (damn you, Sarah McLachlan). I get excited about starting creative projects (and often throw myself into it without thinking). I process and think about things that happened in the past way too much.

I used to want to change... used to want to not feel as much. Thinking to myself, why can other people turn their feelings off or not feel so powerfully? Or feeling compelled to act on feelings instead of just allowing them to BE with me. Realizing that I don't have to get rid of them.

The keyword is used to. Because I don't anymore.

I've learned that sometimes sitting with my feelings is better than acting on them or pushing them away. Sometimes, sitting with them means processing them, trying to make sense of them, accepting them as part of my life and where I am right now. (It doesn't mean things are good or bad, feelings just are.) Although they can be confusing, interruptive, and annoying at times, feelings are just feelings. I need to remember that they are transient in our lives, even when I get stuck and think they are permanent. It's important for me to try to step back and think about the bigger picture. Whatever situation I'm experiencing right now is only a little blip on my life timeline... it's not a crashing boulder. I'm going to be okay.