You're Going to Feel Things


And that's okay.

If I had to pick one of the themes for my year, it would be learning that it's okay to have feelings. In the past, I would not have said it wasn't okay to feel things, but how I processed my feelings and how I felt about my feelings proved otherwise.

Over the course of my days, there are feelings I repress, generalize, ignore, or feel shame about. Realizing how unproductive it is to either dismiss or over-analyze my feelings has been a game-changer in processing through my past, my present, my future, and the change that is inevitable in life. Some days have more feelings than others and those days can be hard. So when I have one of those days when I'm distracted by the myriad of things I'm feeling, I write this phrase down somewhere I can see it...


Then I can start the process of dealing with whatever I'm feeling. There's nothing wrong with how I feel. So, if I feel lonely today or I feel restless about my stage of life...fine. Those are valid feelings and they don't have to control how I act and I don't need to feel badly about them. But my feelings do give me insight into what choices I should make. Maybe my feelings need to be addressed or talked through or maybe they need to simply be acknowledged and just moved on from.

Anyway, this may sound crazy to anyone reading this who isn't much of a feeler. I've been told there are people who aren't very in tune with their feelings and that's very foreign to me. :) But this concept has been liberating to me and has changed the course of my 2015.

4 comments:

sarah.flyingkites said...

Probably no surprise to you, but I LOVED THIS POST! From a fellow-feeler, you know :)

Love you :)
Sarah

Daveana said...

This is so good. There's a lot of merit to validating feelings. I need to be reminded of this also. I tend to bottle them up, which is super unhealthy. I like your thought on how it's ok to have them, but not to let them have control! Great thoughts!

leah said...

This is great! I can relate on several point and it was good for me to read through this. Thanks for sharing friend!

Betsy said...

Totally get you. How good for you to write that phrase where you can see it and remember.