I’ve recently been exploring the concept of seeking peace over happiness. Happiness, joy, excitement – they’re all impermanent states. They have to be! If we felt them all the time, we wouldn’t be able to discern that they were even “good” feelings at all.
And on that note, is it not the association of feelings as “good” or “bad” that leads to the fear of being sad, and the constant yearning to be happy? We are reward seeking beings, we like getting things right, doing “good”.
Our job is not to take away all of our pain and suffering, but to make that suffering tolerable so that you can still find a life worth living.
Like Yin and Yang, masculine and feminine, the dark feelings have meaning and purpose too. They are messengers, first and foremost, that something is out of balance. There is opportunity here for growth and change. And with that, a life that gets easier to navigate – easier to come back to peace when it’s tough.
It’s asking a lot to say “all feelings are gifts” because it’s just not that simple. But, as someone who has feared unhappiness (and FOUGHT it immensely) for a long time, I’m seeing the beauty now in watching it pass, rather than trying to snub it out.
What emotion do you try to “snub out”?
LYL xoxoxo