The Blues Are Good

Today I’m contemplative, reflective and intensely emotional. It happens, sometimes often and I’m never quite sure what to make of it. Maybe life is more overwhelming for me than I’m ready to consciously admit. Maybe I’m just very real and in touch with the movement of emotions in my heart. There is much in the world that stirs me. There is much in my sphere that causes the emotions to rise like the tides and crash into my consciousness like waves onto the shore.

I’m very waxing nostalgic this morning. I’m listening to a mix I made on Itunes this morning:

So Far Away - Carole King
White Room - Cream
Indian Summer - The Doors
If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot
Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word - Joe Cocker
Long Long Time -Linda Ronstadt
How Can I Tell You - Cat Stevens
I Fall to Pieces - Linda Ronstadt
You Are So Beautiful –
Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers
Summer Breeze - Seals & Crofts
Sunshine On My Shoulders - John Denver
You've Got a Friend - Carole King
The Hard Way Every Time - Jim Croce
Morning Has Broken - Cat Stevens

These songs all have meaning for me, words that resonate with the emotions in my soul both for times and occurrences past and even some from the present. As I listen to the words, my soul feels heavy and the emotions seek release and I give them their due and smile blinking back tears. There are times when the soul is all emotion. Such times are not fearful. Such times are truly a blessing. When we are close to our emotions, we’re not stuffing anything down that will later come back to haunt us. There are times I turn to music to help me release a little of the emotional tension that builds for this reason or that reason. Perhaps its because of this tactic that I seem to bounce back quickly after scaring emotional turmoil. I know that the only way through emotional pain is through feeling the emotions of it and letting it go little by little.

I’m beginning to think once again of emotional reverberations. Like aftershocks of an earth quake they come and go and it’s okay. You have to know definitively that its okay, it’s only a moment of emotion and if you do nothing but sit with it, give your all not to fight it, the wave will fall through you and recede. It can seem difficult but that is only because we’re not taught how to handle pain. Society seeks to escape it, get around it, run from it, drown it out or numb it down. That’s not good for the psyche or the soul. Its best to be real, authentic, feel what you feel, speak your truth and be who you are. It’s hard and its frightening but you can and should be in touch with yourself. All aspects of your motivations, thoughts, feelings and their sources. Self-awareness can unlock a lot of pain but it can also be a doorway to intense happiness, serenity and peace.

I’ve much in my life to mourn just now and much change on the horizons. No wonder I’m emotional today but I’m okay with that. Why not today. I’ve got an easy work day ahead of me and a very busy afternoon of pleasant appointments and, of course, a round of tennis later. This too shall pass and I’ll be all the stronger for acknowledging the pain in my heart…I’ll be lighter for allowing it to coalesce in my consciousness and I’ll be peaceful again when this tide passes over me. Living life means you have to always take the good with the bad. As I’ve said before, how do you appreciate light without the darkness that defines it? How can you appreciate peace and happiness without the chaos and pain that help define those feelings? In the end, it’s all good albeit difficult. I think when I mentioned yesterday something about wrestling joyously with difficulty…its days like today I had in mind. As human beings we are emotional at our core no matter how hard we’ve tried to stuff it down, turn it off or focus on other things. Some of us were taught emotions = bad and so we’re out of touch and that out of touch sense really creates drama in other areas of our life at times. I don’t care for drama so I’d rather let the worries of things experienced in the past surface from time to time, analyze the lingering emotion, feel it instead of filter it and then just press ever onward with my life.

The moral of the story here is that its okay to feel. You have my permission. It’s okay to hurt. You have my permission. It’s okay to see things you’ve stuffed away. You have my permission. And….it’s okay to heal…you have to give yourself permission there. That’s key. So go out there and be real, be contemplative, empty the pain in your soul when it feels right to do so and seek the highest meaning possible in every thought and feeling. Blessings.