Feelings...

September 15 - Feelings

'It is fighting our feelings that causes our suffering, not our feelings.'

Feelings are quite simply our reaction to different situations in our lives, be it something that makes us happy or sad. Quite often we will label those feelings in the positive or negative bracket, but in reality they just are...not good, not bad, just simply the way in which we emotionally respond to situations in our lives. 

I know there are shitty moments in life, far out I myself certainly have my fair share of them, and I also know friends and family who are dealing with situations that just don't seem fair. Going even deeper, take a look at the news, there is certainly a lot of crap happening in the world. However, I believe that the way we deal with it all is what makes the positive and negative come into play. 

We can accept and acknowledge how each of life's situations make us feel and work out ways to change them if we don't like our current state, which are all positive steps. Or, we can avoid, ignore and pretend that we don't feel the way we do, which leans more towards a negative approach.

For me personally, talking about and expressing how I feel hasn't always been easy, its only really been in the past couple of years that I've felt its OK not to be OK, rather than always automatically just taking a 'you'll be right, dust yourself off and just keep going' attitude, hoping that what was getting me down would just magically disappear because of my 'sunny disposition'.

Let me tell you though, for me it doesn't work that way. Yes of course you can still be ultra thankful and grateful for the positives in your life and regardless of what you are going through I believe there is always one - even if it is that you are still here and yes I have had moments where I felt that wasn't a positive at all. But if you don't acknowledge what is getting you down in the first place it will keep coming back to bite you on the arse. This doesn't mean that you unpack and stay there in the doom and gloom, it just simply means to allow yourself to 'feel', to emotionally respond to all of life's situations so that you can figure out what you want to change and then change it.

Everything we feel is a learning experience, all part of the journey towards our end goal. The lows are a reminder to steer is in the right direction; the highs are a little boost to motivate us to keep on going.

Coming off the back of RU OK? and Suicide Prevention Day I decided to post this little reminder on my instagram and facebook sites and thought I would share here too.

Things aren't always black and white. Behind a smile someone may be going through something no one knows anything about, something they can't control it, something they feel they can't change. 

Never assume that people are strong enough to get through on their own or have a great support network and so don't need your help, you may be the person they reach out to. 

We are all in this together in one way or another. 

To those feeling like there is no way out - reach out, there is always a silver lining, sunshine behind the clouds, someone who cares, someone feeling the same way.