About emotions

I have been thinking a lot about emotions lately, and I have very conflicted feeling about them (yes, I know).

So I am just going to share some of my personal experiences about strong feelings, how to accept them and deal with them.

Accepting emotions

My husband (who was not my husband, at that time) and I used to live in different countries for over a year. When he visited, I used to wake up really depressed on Sunday morning, being crushed by the inevitability of him leaving the same evening.

And I felt bad about feeling sad, then I felt angry about feeling sad, and I was upset, and in the end, I finished by feeling guilty about feeling angry about feeling sad about him leaving...

Hum, see the issue here?

In the end, I was just a mess, feeling horrible and hating myself.

It was years ago, but it is still something that happens to me from time to time. I feel an emotion I am not proud about, and it starts a circle of guilt.

What yoga says

In a lot of different ways, yoga helps us to take a little distance. Inside of us all, there is a little witness. This witness, the one that we help grow by observing things (ourselves, our breath), is one of your best tool.

Thanks to this witness, we realize that WE ARE NOT OUR EMOTIONS. This realization changes everything. Once we accept that, we CAN observe our feelings, and, instead of identifying with them, it is up to us to choose how to react.

It is fine to have strong feelings. We are not responsible for how we feel. We do have a responsibility on how we act on our feelings though.

How it helps

I have been working a lot on my emotions, and, for someone who used to have the personality of an angry dragon, I can say that Yoga has help me a LOT (and made my husband a happy man).

I still have feelings. I still get angry or sad or frustrated. But now, I can easily identify my feeling, and just focus on letting it go.

Sometimes it takes a while, but sometimes it is really easy, but in the end I always manage to let go.

And letting go becomes easier and easier.

I always take a moment to remind myself : "your feelings are valid, it is ok to feel the way you feel".

Love yourself, love your feelings. Accept them as they are, and let them go <3