Sometimes I feel sad or lonely. Sometimes I feel confident and ready. Sometimes I feel like it’s all tumbling down. Sometimes I feel like coming out to play.
Sometimes I feel frisky and other times shy. Sometimes it’s all happening. Sometimes I feel deeply for someone I seem to have lost.
The Highs That Follow the Lows
But as low as I’ve felt, I’ve also been high. So I just keep feeling it all.
Those highs come on stronger when I feel thankful for the experiences I’ve had and the ones yet to come. When I honor what my failures have taught me and the victories I’ve won because of lessons hard-earned.
There’s a rhythm to this. The lows aren’t punishment, and the highs aren’t reward. They’re both part of the same wave. You can’t have one without the other. And trying to only have the highs is what makes people miserable.
I’ve tried to outrun the lows. It doesn’t work. They catch up eventually, and they’ve grown larger for being avoided.
Why Gratitude Changes Everything
It feels good to be in appreciation of the people in my life and places I’ve been. To be ready to be ready. Baptized in the unfolding unknown.
I just keep feeling into it all. And I’m grateful for big feelings and small.
But that gratitude? It’s king. And life is my queen, when my queen is off feeling too.
Gratitude isn’t about pretending things are better than they are. It’s about being present enough to notice what’s actually here. When you’re truly present, even difficult things carry a strange beauty. Because they’re real. And reality, when you’re willing to feel it fully, is always richer than the numbness we trade it for.
Learning How to Feel Your Feelings
It’s all in motion. And I keep riding the ride.
When you learn how to feel your feelings, all of them, something shifts. You stop fighting the lows. You stop clinging to the highs. You just ride.
The secret isn’t to feel better. It’s to get better at feeling. That’s the difference between numbing and healing.
Most of us were never taught this. We were taught to manage feelings, control them, overcome them. But feelings don’t want to be managed. They want to be felt. They want to move through you like weather moves through the sky.
The Practice of Presence
When sadness comes, I don’t ask why or how long it will last. I just let it be here. I notice where it lives in my body. I breathe into it without trying to change it.
When joy comes, I don’t try to hold onto it. I let it move through me just as freely as the sadness. Because trying to grip joy is what turns it into anxiety.
This is how to feel your feelings. Not by analyzing them. Not by fixing them. Just by being present to them as they move.
The capacity to feel deeply is the capacity to live deeply. They’re the same thing. When you numb one emotion, you numb them all. When you open to one, you open to everything.
I just keep riding.
This is shadow work in action.
If you’re ready to process what’s been running your life, explore the Shadow Work practices.