Hey there,
Being a human involves our ability to feel. Feelings help us consciously realize how our body's feeling towards a particular situation and helps us make decisions. We can't control how we feel but we are all parts of groups that amongst other things tell us what's okay to feel, and what's not. Example: our workplaces tell us it's okay to feel competitive but not horny (sexual harassment classes, etc). What I want to share with you today are 3 feelings our society makes us believe are not "okay" You ready? Let's go.
3. Fear: You've heard it before: "don't be afraid", "the only thing to fear is fear itself" and other cliches.Fear takes many other shapes than "feeling-scared-ness", fear is also denial, insecurities, nightmares, stress and anxiety on some level. Writing this I can't help but feel like we are pretty much afraid most of our day. Sounds scary? Well, feel it. And I do hope sooner or later you realize that fear is a part of us.
My saying is simple "don't be afraid to be afraid". Feeling truly afraid allows us a glimpse into our unconsciousness and helps us discover new things, figure out new ways to deal with old things, draw, write, paint, love, and more.
It's a sucky feeling yes, and you know what else? It's underrated.
2. Gratitude: It's not that our society tells us it's not okay to feel grateful, it's that it doesn't even mention this one. If I hadn't spent much of my teenage years around recovering addicts, marginalized youth and yoga enthusiasts, I wouldn't even have known what this feeling really meant. It's one of my firm convictions these days that hte difference between a good life and a great life is acknowledging when we feel this.No one can tell you how or where or what to feel grateful for, that's all up to you.
This is probably my favourite feeling. To feel grateful is to understand that I have it better than I could have had. Boy, what a realization that is. You can't help but start thinking about faith, the people you love, how good it feels to really be alive, ah.
One related observation I've made is that there is a genuine difference between not taking things for granted and feeling grateful. As always, I don't like spelling everything out for the readers but I encourage you to try to figure out what I mean by this.
1. Wrong: Feeling wrong is probably the hardest one to feel even on a deep unconscious level, it's no wonder our society doesn't promote this one. We all hate being wrong on some level. To acknowledge feeling wrong is to voluntarily take an ego-bruising. It's to recant and admit someone else knows something more than I. Many of us would rather go to the jail, commit crimes, lie, cheat, steal ... than admit that we are ... simply put... wrong. Feeling wrong in our choices reminds us of math classes from elementary school where we tried our hardest but damnit, we got a 0. We are not good enough, etc etc. That's the perspective many of us walk with unknowingly everyday.
But feeling wrong is to open the flood gates of unlearning and learning. Admitting our mistakes means feeling regret, shame or embarrassment, but it also means chance to do something truly right. It means listening to someone. It means to accept humility. This post is already long or else I'd elaborate on how many companies and health care systems have found the way to eliminate errors is to encourage their employees to start admitting when they did wrong (ie. made mistakes in their professional life) You want to know why science gets things right so often? It admits when it gets things wrong too.
Whether you like it or not, you are going to be or do wrong in the future, often times. Try to feel it, it's gonna suck, but it's really going to make a difference in your life, in your perspective of yourself and others.
Tell me if you think I am wrong, I'll be grateful for it,
Romil
Being a human involves our ability to feel. Feelings help us consciously realize how our body's feeling towards a particular situation and helps us make decisions. We can't control how we feel but we are all parts of groups that amongst other things tell us what's okay to feel, and what's not. Example: our workplaces tell us it's okay to feel competitive but not horny (sexual harassment classes, etc). What I want to share with you today are 3 feelings our society makes us believe are not "okay" You ready? Let's go.
3. Fear: You've heard it before: "don't be afraid", "the only thing to fear is fear itself" and other cliches.Fear takes many other shapes than "feeling-scared-ness", fear is also denial, insecurities, nightmares, stress and anxiety on some level. Writing this I can't help but feel like we are pretty much afraid most of our day. Sounds scary? Well, feel it. And I do hope sooner or later you realize that fear is a part of us.
My saying is simple "don't be afraid to be afraid". Feeling truly afraid allows us a glimpse into our unconsciousness and helps us discover new things, figure out new ways to deal with old things, draw, write, paint, love, and more.
It's a sucky feeling yes, and you know what else? It's underrated.
2. Gratitude: It's not that our society tells us it's not okay to feel grateful, it's that it doesn't even mention this one. If I hadn't spent much of my teenage years around recovering addicts, marginalized youth and yoga enthusiasts, I wouldn't even have known what this feeling really meant. It's one of my firm convictions these days that hte difference between a good life and a great life is acknowledging when we feel this.No one can tell you how or where or what to feel grateful for, that's all up to you.
This is probably my favourite feeling. To feel grateful is to understand that I have it better than I could have had. Boy, what a realization that is. You can't help but start thinking about faith, the people you love, how good it feels to really be alive, ah.
One related observation I've made is that there is a genuine difference between not taking things for granted and feeling grateful. As always, I don't like spelling everything out for the readers but I encourage you to try to figure out what I mean by this.
1. Wrong: Feeling wrong is probably the hardest one to feel even on a deep unconscious level, it's no wonder our society doesn't promote this one. We all hate being wrong on some level. To acknowledge feeling wrong is to voluntarily take an ego-bruising. It's to recant and admit someone else knows something more than I. Many of us would rather go to the jail, commit crimes, lie, cheat, steal ... than admit that we are ... simply put... wrong. Feeling wrong in our choices reminds us of math classes from elementary school where we tried our hardest but damnit, we got a 0. We are not good enough, etc etc. That's the perspective many of us walk with unknowingly everyday.
But feeling wrong is to open the flood gates of unlearning and learning. Admitting our mistakes means feeling regret, shame or embarrassment, but it also means chance to do something truly right. It means listening to someone. It means to accept humility. This post is already long or else I'd elaborate on how many companies and health care systems have found the way to eliminate errors is to encourage their employees to start admitting when they did wrong (ie. made mistakes in their professional life) You want to know why science gets things right so often? It admits when it gets things wrong too.
Whether you like it or not, you are going to be or do wrong in the future, often times. Try to feel it, it's gonna suck, but it's really going to make a difference in your life, in your perspective of yourself and others.
Tell me if you think I am wrong, I'll be grateful for it,
Romil
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