Happiness
The cacophonous advice from the mental health arena is; sit with your feelings, let yourself feel and not just intellectualize. I thought that meant only the uncomfortable feeling. I’ve been practicing sitting with the feelings of sadness, grief, loss, anger or disappointment. But that is just part of the emotional spectrum. Recently, as the universe often does, it conspired to bring me an opportunity to practice feeling the good feelings.
My daily tarot card was Nine of Cups, so I was expecting a day of contentedness. I went about my day as usual, working, and listening to my audio book, when for reasons beyond logic, I became inspired to put away this jacket I’d left hanging in my laundry room for months. As I picked it up, I felt the pocket. It was bulky and full. With excitement I reached in to find - my hat. A simple deep green knit hat. I’d thought I’d lost this hat, I’d searched high and low, looked everywhere and been unable to find it. I’d resolved that I’d lost this hat I really loved. But here it was in my hands. My chest was filled with so much happiness! I laughed aloud and pulled it onto my head, beaming. I wore it the rest of the day and every time I looked in a mirror I smiled with delight.
I let myself feel that good feeling. I just felt it without intellectualizing. I didn't minimize it and ‘move on because it was just a hat’. I felt joyful throughout the rest of my day. In learning to let myself feel and be with my uncomfortable feelings I allowed myself this day of simple bliss. I’m grateful for the incredible growth I’ve made in decoupling shame from emotions. And I love this damn hat!
