Crying only a little bit is no use. You must cry until your pillow is soaked. Then you can get up and laugh . . . —Galway Kinnell
Many of us were raised to deny our feelings; that is, we might have been allowed to describe them politely, but we were not allowed to express feelings on the spot by wailing, jumping for joy, or dancing. This is often considered rude. In a proper home, we often hear, if people have feelings, they have them quietly. But many of us have suffered living this way.
We need a full and thorough expression of a feeling in order to know it, experience it, and move beyond it. This is the way we let go of sadness, for instance.
Feelings come and go. If we are not afraid to let them have their moment, we will not be afraid to express them.
What am I feeling right now?
From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©
Personal relations.
Who are the people we really like, and to be with? Most of the time, they are happy people, people who like themselves and others. Being happy is almost the entire secret of being likable. Though no person can expect to be liked by everybody, likable people have the inside track most of the time.
Living upon a basis of unsatisfied demands,
we were in a state of continual disturbance and frustration.
Therefore, no peace was to be had unless we could find a means
of reducing these demands.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 76
Thought to Ponder . . .
Once we understand ourselves, the rest of living falls in line.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
S W A T = Surrender, Willingness, Action, Trust.
Most challenging
The more excuses you come up with to avoid doing it, the more important it is to get it done. After all, if it didn’t really matter, you wouldn’t bother with all the excuses.
Whatever you feel yourself resisting, is what you must find a way to do. Because when you can get past the resistance, what you’ll be able to create is great and fulfilling value.
It is much, much easier to give in to the excuses. But then all you’ll be left with is regret.
It is much more difficult to do those great and wonderful things you know you’re capable of doing. Yet from that difficulty comes the golden experience of the life you know you are meant to live.
Go ahead and feel the fear, feel the doubt, feel the frustration and discomfort and apprehension. Then, take all that energy and lovingly, joyfully, enthusiastically turn it around.
Step confidently forward in precisely the direction that is most challenging to you. Because in that same direction, you’ll also find what is most rewarding to you.
Choose to forego what is easy right now. And deliver yourself into the realm of what is truly great and fulfilling.
— Ralph Marston
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