Afraid of your own emotions?

Are you afraid of your emotions? Afraid that they will overwhelm you or get out of control? Afraid that you can't handle them? Afraid that you will break down or go to pieces if you really let your true feelings out?

Well if you are, welcome to the club. It seems to me that most of us are like that. Somehow we've gotten this crazy idea that we should always be happy, well-functioning and upbeat and that if (God forbid) we should feel sad, confused or unhappy, there is something wrong with us. And as a result, we tend to suppress the so-called "negative emotions".

But here's the question... are these emotions really negative? Are they really so dangerous as we tend to believe? Will they really overpower us and make us into half-crazed maniacs if we look at them and feel them?

What if we looked upon these so-called negative emotions as kindly messengers from within who are saying to us "it's time to take a look at this my dear, it's time to make some changes or adjustments, it's time to slow down..." What if that was our attitude? What if we truly stopped and sat down and listened to the voice from within... what would happen then?

First of all, if we listen to the voice within, in my experience it changes the way we treat ourselves (and everyone else of course). We become a lot kinder and more spacious and compassionate towards ourselves and towards others.  And we relax...

And then too we would find out (at least that's my experience) that these emotions are not so dangerous and overwhelming as we thought they were. They're just like the little child within us, crying out for some attention. Can you be the kind mother to your own sadness and distress? You might want to try and see what happens. And the other thing I noticed is that when we try to suppress our so-called negative emotions, we actually make them a lot stronger. When we fear them we make them more powerful - and the more we run away - the worse it gets...  but when we turn and welcome these feelings, we find out it's just us. And we're just - well - quite wonderful and ok just the way we are...