Emotions are meant to be felt

What if you broke your arm and the doctor said, “It’s ok to stay in the cast the rest of your life. It will just give a little added support to the arm.”

Would that sit well with you?

You can imagine my surprise—and concern—when someone shared that they wanted to taper off their antidepressant and their doctor told them it was fine to stay on it for life because it was ‘just a little boost to the brain.’”

This doesn’t sit well with me—not because I believe people are wrong for taking medication, but because I believe we deserve more than symptom management. We deserve real healing.

Our emotions are valuable. They are what make us human. When we silence them, we are hindering our ability to heal them.

The reality is that in today’s culture, we have many devices that we use to numb (no pun intended)- cell phones, social media, video gaming, food, alcohol, marijuana, work, over rationalizing, even spirituality and chasing the next healing modality.

Emotions aren’t the enemy. They're messengers trying to speak to us—sometimes loudly, sometimes inconveniently—but always with a purpose.

* Anger may be alerting you that a boundary has been crossed, something is unjust, you feel disrespected or ignored, you’ve lost your power

* Sadness could be the grief of unprocessed loss, unmet needs, or accumulated disappointments

* Anxiety might be a signal that you're not living in alignment—or that your nervous system is overloaded, you’re anticipating a future threat or feel out of control, you may be in need of grounding

* Loneliness may be pointing to a real need for authentic connection—not just presence, but presence that sees you, you crave deeper connection or belonging, you’ve become disconnected from yourself

* Guilt may be an indicator that you believe you’ve done something wrong or gone against your values, it make me asking you to make amends or to free yourself from unrealistic expectations

* Shame- you feel unworthy, exposed or flawed, this may signal old wounds from childhood, trauma or societal pressures

* Joy- you’re aligned with your truth, values, or desires

* Emotional numbness itself often says: "I’ve been overwhelmed for too long, and this is how I protect myself now."

If I could teach people one thing it is this-

In its purest form, an emotion only lasts about 90 seconds. This comes from Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist who explained that the chemical reaction triggered by an emotional response in the brain and body runs its course in about 1.5 minutes, unless we feed it with thoughts.

What makes emotions feel like they “last forever” is that we often replay the story behind the emotion:

* We ruminate.

* We judge ourselves for feeling it.

* We resist or avoid it.

* We create mental loops that keep it active.

So, it’s not the emotion itself that lingers—it’s the attachment to it.

When we feel the emotion fully, without fighting or overanalyzing it:

* It moves through us.

* It softens.

* It shifts.

* Emotions are meant to move. That’s literally in the word: e-motion = energy in motion. They are meant to move through us- not to be managed, medicated, or minimized.

The goal isn’t to feel good all the time. The goal is to feel our emotions, to move through them without attachment, and to move forward. The cliche is true- you have to feel it to heal it.

Instead of asking how do I get rid of this emotion, consider asking:

What is this feeling trying to show me?

What need is beneath it?

What would it look like to listen and honor it without letting it take over?

This is part one of our emotional wellness series.

In the next posts, we’ll dive into:

* How emotions get stored in the body

* A deeper look at antidepressants

* Holistic and intuitive healing modalities