Have you found yourself feeling as if you are riding an emotional roller coaster lately? As we continue to navigate the challenges of a global pandemic, you may experience a variety of emotions on any given day: fear, anxiety, grief, worry, maybe even moments of joy.

While it’s common to want to numb difficult emotions, it’s important to feel all your feelings. In reality, when you numb negative emotions, you also prevent yourself from feeling positive emotions such as happiness and joy. Feelings are actually messengers that contain important information for your health and wellbeing.

Exploring the root cause of a feeling may lead you to opportunities for personal growth. In his poem The Guesthouse, Rumi describes emotions as unexpected visitors, and encourages to “welcome and entertain them all.”

A common analogy is of the mind being an ocean, with our thoughts, feelings and emotions being the waves. Those waves come and go, rise and fall. While it may not feel like it at the time, those waves are temporary, no one feeling lasts forever. The ocean (mind) contains the waves, and is much more than that.

Practicing breath work and meditation are tools that can help to work with difficult emotions as you increase self-awareness and self-control through observation of your own mental patterns. The Still Lake Meditation is one that works with the water element (and one of my personal favorites). If you enjoy this meditation, I encourage you to practice it on a regular basis.