Feel All of the Feelings

Our worst decisions in life are often made because we want to avoid feeling a certain way. Who can blame us? Feelings can be incredibly uncomfortable and painful! Yet, if our aversion to certain feelings is the primary way we make decisions, we will likely make very unskillfull decisions. Here are a few examples: We might stay in a relationship only because we want to avoid conflict and feeling lonely; we might say yes to something we don’t want to do to avoid feeling guilty; we might not speak our truth because we don’t want to feel embarrassed; we might make a safe choice because we want to avoid feeling disappointed or in the spotlight. When you can feel anything and everything then you are truly free---free to be yourself, to follow your intuition, to share your love, to speak your voice, to work for justice, to say no, and to live courageously. We can also be much more honest with ourselves and others. The willingness to live into this kind of radical authenticity is the very foundation of the mindful life. This capacity to be with our feelings allows our deepest values to shine through our lives. We invite you to join us in our community of mindfulness practice so we can bravely sit with even the most uncomfortable feelings and emerge as the authentic and liberated beings we were born to be.

Weekend Wisdom is a weekly sharing from Copper Beech Institute’s founder, Dr. Brandon Nappi.