When I am feeling sad or depressed, or anxious and afraid, my first instinct is to get rid of these emotions either by doing something unhealthy like smoking or overeating, or something productive like cleaning the house or exercising. The goal in both cases is to block out the emotion; to ignore it; to purge it from my system; to eradicate it.
What if rather than trying to kill the emotion, I sat with it; let it flow through and around me, believing all the while I am safe, because it is my actions, not my emotions, that have the potential to harm me.
I find that when I do this, the emotion tends to dissipate on its own. It’s as if giving it recognition somehow facilitates its disappearance.
Today, I will acknowledge the emotions within me. I will validate their existence, keeping in mind that feelings are not facts. They cannot harm me. Like a river they will flow towards me, through me and then out of me, and I will know peace.
Write into the Light 
As a therapist, I must tell you that you offer such valuable information to people really suffering! Thank you. Keep educating and inspiring!
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Thank you so much! I plan on it. 🙂
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I found this post to be interesting. I am not one to sit with my emotions. I try to rid them in some way – or, yes, mask them. I find it very difficult to sit with them because I feel that it reveals to others what do not want them to know or see. Not that there are others, really. I have become quite a recluse. In many ways I feel more safe this way this way but in the opposite end if the spectrum, it is the emotions and my poorly view of self that is more damaging. I feel stuck.
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I understand. I find that by sitting with them and thereby accepting their existence they go away faster. Fighting them makes them stronger for me.
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