Acknowledge Your Feelings For Optimal Well-Being

You can and should practice directing your thoughts and feelings. You can choose to stop listening to the inner voices (and external voices from friends and family) who tell you that “you can’t.” But first you must acknowledge your full range of feelings.

We can reach a higher level of overall well-being when we acknowledge feelings and emotions. Few people make that effort a priority. However, the more you practice this method, it will become easier. Too many of us have been taught that our feelings need to be held back or put away in the deep recesses of our minds. Let’s look at how that happens and understand ways to unwind our feelings and go inward.

We live in a world that puts a low priority on a healthy emotional life. We associate many feelings with being vulnerable, weak, crazy, ashamed, or wrong. We are taught to focus on the physical world and our physical selves. Emotions, especially negative emotions, are to be hidden, suppressed, repressed, or stuffed.

We all want to be happy all the time, but this is unrealistic. “Don’t worry, be happy!” was a hit song. But, what does it mean to be happy? If we are unhappy, have we failed at life?

Feelings fluctuate and can be fluid all the time. You can have several, conflicting feelings at the same time. Trying to be perpetually happy can set you up for disappointment. If happiness is the goal, you will feel pressured to pretend to be happy. This is known as spiritual bypassing, which is a nice way of saying the you avoiding your unresolved issues.