Gut knotted, shoulders tensed, oblivion is sought..

I have been thinking deeply upon my need to always want to make right the emotions that move through me. The emotions that are labelled as uncomfortable. Who taught me that fear, worry or sadness is bad? What may I do to just love what is? I have read reams about this… and what Byron Katie says sounds so simple.

"I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn't believe them, I didn't suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment. That joy is in everyone, always."

Gut knotted, shoulders tensed, oblivion is sought in meditation, thinking positive and being busy…The best that I can do is sit with what moves, accept my emotion. Even be brave enough to back track where it has come from. Have a conversation with it instead of resisting it. In my resistance I do not find ease, but into allowance I find a great deal of understanding/insight and from this arises compassion for self. In this space of looking and examining a sense of detachment arises. And a preference of joy or sadness becomes blurred because this IS… it IS… and there I find myself a full circle coming back to Byron Katie’s words of Loving What Is…

My own personal opinion is that by shutting down any emotion that arises, be that desires, grief or melancholy we lose our humanity and become wooden and somehow less real. This does not mean I am acting on everything that arises, but rather being more attentive and tender towards myself.