Last week, I wrote about how it is to be back at school after summer break. As I've transitioned back, I've felt a variety of emotions: happiness, joy, sadness, anger, loneliness. Name any emotion, and I've probably felt it in the past two weeks.

Sometimes when we feel extremes often and quickly, we tend to be hard on ourselves for "feeling too much".

I know for me, in the past, I've seen my sensitivity and great differences in emotion as a weakness and as a sign that I am doing something wrong.

Over the summer, however, I heard a song that greatly shifted my thinking on what it means to feel emotion. The song has one line, but it is a powerful one: Every emotion that arises has a right to life.

What does this mean? What does it mean to say our emotions have "rights"?

The way I understand it, this song, these words give us permission to feel however we wish, with no judgment on our end.

Instead of scolding yourself for feeling down about something minor someone said to you or feeling irritated at yourself for making a careless error on a quiz, these words tell us that whatever we are feeling, whatever emotion comes up as a result of our life experience, it has a right to be a part of us in that moment.

I think this idea is similar to, yet in the best of ways, different from, the idea that we ought to be "gentle with ourselves". When we say to be gentle with ourselves, we urge ourselves to not be so hard on ourselves, yet often when we tell ourselves to be gentle with ourselves we may feel we are forcing ourselves to instantly let go of the emotions that irritability or insecurity that come up. I am a big proponent of striving to be gentle with oneself.

Yet, sometimes, we might not be able to simply let go of that irritability or insecurity; "being gentle with yourself" may skip the important step of feeling. This is why the words every emotion that arises has a right to life are so assuring to me.

If our natural response and inclination in the moment is anger, is sadness, is loneliness, whatever it might be, let that emotion arise, because its presence has purpose.

We are not perfect human beings nor do I think we want to be. We will feel a variety of emotions at different times in response to the people, places, and things that make up our life experience and that is okay.

We are meant to feel all these things, and recognize them, because their presence has meaning. For example, anger masks anger, so if we give anger the permission to sit with us, we may find a sadness underneath that we can work through. In happier terms, if we feel excitement when we enter one of our classes, we may find that this excitement is an indication of one of our passions or callings in life.

Every emotion has a right to life because behind every emotion, there is a distinct meaning and sign.

So, readers, don't just be gentle with yourself and force yourself to try to not be hard on yourself if you're not at the point right now. Let yourself feel, because it will allow you to move past whatever is happening and move forward. Life is all about emotion, after all.

Talk soon,

Sam