Feel Happier by Making Friends With All Your Feelings.

Stop judging feelings as good or bad and start looking at what they are trying to teach you.When you act blindly out of your feelings, you can limit and even damage your relationships. But your feelings can be your greatest teachers if you will listen to them. You can seize healing opportunities by paying attention to your feelings, discovering where they are coming from, getting mad or sad about what you are *really* feeling mad or sad about, and then letting the emotional energy move through and out of you without judging it.What's Really Happening? This means that when you get upset, you look more deeply. Let's say someone was going to do the dishes but didn't, and you're peeved. Maybe it's really resentment that he or she isn't spending much time at home. Maybe you were brought up in a house where the kitchen was always a mess and you were embarrassed about that. Who knows? Only you do. You've probably heard that what you resist persists, so allow yourself to feel it, to honor whatever emotion is there. You might keep some old dishes safely taped up in a cardboard box that you can throw around in the garage in a tantrum. (One of our clients said there was no greater satisfaction for her when she got mad.) You may need to cry or scream into a pillow or just pout for a while. Find a way to express yourself in a way that doesn't hurt others and gives you the chance to fully purge the emotion.Keep in mind, there are steps to honoring/mastering your feelings:

(1) Give yourself permission to have these feelings.

(2) Recognize what they are.

(3) Fully feel them. Breathe deeply.

(4) Determine the appropriate level of expression.

(5) Look to see if there's another way to view the painful incident. Is it possible that the meaning you have attached to it is not the highest thought? Look for a higher-self interpretation.

(6) Take responsibility for your feelings and get the lessons they hold so you can move to a higher level of awareness.