There is no light without darkness.

What’s with all of the emotion-shaming I am seeing?

It’s rare that any of us respond truthfully to the question, “How are you?” even when it’s being asked by a friend.

Sometimes it’s because we have more important things to talk about, like the new Avenger movie, but I know I’ve held back my true feelings out of fear. I wasn’t just afraid of being judged for my sadness or anger, but I also didn’t want the other person to attack it with their advice on how to fix it—like sadness is some evil thing that we need to stay far away from otherwise we’re some kind of failure.

When did we start categorizing emotions as being good or bad? When did we start oppressing our feelings in accordance to those definitions? Are we afraid of what we are truly feeling? Or do we run from our emotions out of fear of society’s judgement?

We are all spiritual beings having a human experience and our emotions—all of our emotions—are part of what it means to be human.

Even when we are falling down a hole of depression or lost in our anger, we are always exactly where we need to be.

We have every feeling for a reason.

We experience everything because we are meant to learn something from it. Being human means to that we are constantly growing. We evolve with every relationship. Our path develops with every conversation.

When we cut ourselves off from a feeling, we stop ourselves from developing.

I love being happy. I love being in a state of joy.

But, sometimes we learn more when we’re in the darkness. We learn more about ourselves and our path when we fall and have to get back up.

By forcing ourselves to be happy all the time, that need to be happy will start to stress us out and we won’t truly be able to live.

Sadness is a human emotion, just like joy.

Allow yourself to feel everything. Give yourself permission to live this life fully.

The darkness won’t last forever. When you’re ready, the light will chase it away and you will shine brighter, giving others permission to go through the bad so they can truly experience the good.

Be human. Be you.

Here is a total body yoga routine to help ease open the body and make room for healing and light, when you’re ready for it. Take your time in each posture. Linger where it feels good to linger. And, when you’re ready, linger wherever you feel tension, especially in the hips since that is where we hold many of our emotional stresses.

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Relephant:

Two Ways to Use Our Problems to Be Happier.

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Author: Stacy Porter

Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock

Photo: courtesy of the author