Our Emotional Landscapes

At times and moments in our lives, our emotions can be an all-consuming and overwhelming source of pleasure, discomfort, confusion, frustration, despair, sadness, joy and refuge. It is vital that we accept our full emotional landscape, with all its ebbs and flows and unpredictable land lines.

We can can draw great resonance and comfort in comparing our changing experiences to weather patterns. Some days the sky is clear, sun-kissed and warm - on others it is full of thunder and constant rain. On some, there is a little bit of everything, with high winds, still waters, sun and dark clouds all at once.

Not one of us can control the sky, with all its shifts and motions. All we can do is embrace what is there and adapt accordingly. A murky, windy, dark day can be translated into a cosy, fire-lit time indoors, an intimate supper with loved ones, a creative afternoon painting or a chance to organise our homes and regulate our duties.

Just as with our emotions, feelings of sadness, bitterness and despair can be welcomed, felt and let go, rather than avoided and denied. These may also be harnessed towards a positive lesson, action or expression, and poured into something new. Anger can be put into a run in nature, into a dance, into working in the garden or volunteering time towards a cause we believe in.

Whatever the emotion, however pleasant or uncomfortable, try to embrace it, act upon it, listen to it and harness its energy into something positive for you or for others. Try not to reject what you feel. Acknowledge the truth, allow it to guide you and remember that it will surely pass.

Much like the weather, we cannot always control or even understand the enormity and spectrum of our feelings. At times they are constant, steadfast and reliable, at others they are entirely scattered, unpredictable and variable.

By accepting what passes as entirely natural and entirely human we can get comfortable with emotional variety and find healthy responses that honour, protect and nourish our lives.

We might just find ourselves with a greater capacity to handle the variable of others, just as we embrace and welcome and get comfortable with our own full spectrum of feelings. Much like the sky above - with all its temperatures, colours, shades, sounds and textures - all is integral to different cycles, seasons and stages of nature.

So welcome all of your emotions, get to known them and get comfortable with that which challenges and offsets you. Listen to what they might be suggesting and harness their power towards something creative, something positive, something kind and something compassionate.

Work with tough emotional terrain, rather than discarding, dismissing and storing them in your body, and allow them to steer and navigate you through challenging times and moments.

Your emotions are there to guide and instruct you through the many chapters of your life. So feel them, share them, listen to what they are trying to tell you and use them as a landing point and anchor. And begin to create a constant space of refuge, variation and safety in your body and in your life.