Feelings Are Not Problems
So today, I want to start with a statement, which is this: feelings are not problems.
Now, I know for myself and many people that I’ve worked with, that for much of life, I certainly did relate to feelings as if they were problems.
Sadness, being in a funk, perhaps being in a depressed mood — they felt like problems that needed solving, because that’s what we do with problems, right? Problems need solutions, and so we start looking for solutions.
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The thing is, the parts of the mind that we engage in order to problem-solve — the intellect — aren’t particularly helpful when it comes to emotions and feelings.
And what tends to happen is we start making meaning. We make a big deal out of things that aren’t necessarily a big deal.
Someone asked me in a group context a few weeks ago, “Have you got any advice for how to get out of a funk?”
And I paused for a second because I really wanted to see what came to me new and fresh in that moment. And what appeared was: the fastest way to get out of a funk is not to make it a big deal that we’re in one.
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What if we didn’t have to apply so much meaning and judgment to the ever-changing feeling states that we experience as being human?
What if our feelings and emotions and sensations weren’t problems?
And what if knowing that allowed the system, and the wisdom in the system, to do what it knows how to do, so that we can live with less suffering and more peace?
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