Start from Now
Depression wants company. Anger wants company.
It’s better to get out of those states as soon as possible. For if you lay in them, you most definitely renounce a good portion of your power to them. And anger or depression are not the wisest of masters. They seek to bring people down and feel like they have a license to do so. But how can you stop them from taking over. Ignoring their existence makes it worse. They can control you with even less effort because you give them all your power and agency, as you end up identifying them with yourself. Repressing them also makes it worse because they get to lie dormant, waiting for reinforcements, gaining power. They add up and increase in power every time you repress until they burst up with an immense energy that you will not be able to control. Everything and everyone around you will be collateral damage.
Quite opposing common sense, the way to deal with these negative emotions is to acknowledge them and let them make their case. They are there for a reason. They are there to protect you. They are there to help you. Anger aims to avoid your mistreatment. Fear aims to keep you alive. Guilt wants to tell you where you might have gone wrong. Sadness wants to tell you what you have lost and what you may recover. Envy tells you of what you’re missing and what you want. They are there for you to learn from them and adjust. If you don’t listen to them, however, they can make you bitter and short-tempered and vindictive.
These negative feelings, when bottled up, can also render you unable to hear your true self. And you may fall into the trap of thinking that you are being somehow punished or that there is something wrong with you. These thoughts intensify your negative state and further block your ability to flow freely.
So, what can you do?
Always start in truth, even — and, especially — when the truth hurts. Anger, fear, sadness, depression, guilt, they don’t feel nice. Who wants to stay in those states? Yet they are there to give you a message. The easiest way to get rid of them is to listen. See what they have to say. Allow yourself to feel anger, fear or sadness. Allow yourself to feel whatever you feel. Quite counter-intuitive but, that’s what these feelings are for. They want to teach us something. The only reason we’re avoiding them is because we have learned that they are ‘bad’ feelings. The funny part is that when you allow yourself to feel them, they fade away. When you suppress or negate them, they come back with even more force.
Admit how you’re feeling and start with that. Start with the truth. Sometimes, the fact that you’re sad or angry or feel guilty is the truth. When you give yourself permission to admit the way you feel, you give into the truth. You are grounded. You are brought into the now, the only place where you can hear your true self; the only place you can act from.
Start from truth. Start from now.
