No, I’m not going to start quoting the song, “Be My Guest”  from Beauty and the Beast, although that movie could be a topic for a whole other blog entry.  I’m simply offering an open invitation to every emotion that exists. Extending this invitation is something I often suggest to the people with whom I work.  Yes, every emotion, from pure joy to utter despair, because there are a time and a place for them all.

If you consider yourself a vessel to temporarily contain whatever feeling you’re experiencing (and believe it or not it is temporary as all things are) at that moment you realize that you’re fully living your life because sometimes there are reasons to be happy and sometimes there are reasons to be sad.  Allowing yourself to endure those experiences gives you permission to live by fully accepting what’s around you.

Life isn’t a guarantee of positive things.  You work towards the positive that you want while finding ways of coping and managing the other things that come along beyond your control, and that includes every emotion that comes along with it.  Besides you never know what positive emotion might be coming next, that you first had to be wiped clean by a negative one, in order to fully reap its benefits.  This is much more effective than trying to block yourself from feeling something.  Too many times in that case it comes back in the most inopportune time tenfold.

This idea is beautifully illustrated in a poem written by a 13th-century poet named Rumi, entitled, The Guest House.

This being human is a guest-house

Every morning a new arrival.

 

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

Some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

 

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows

Who violently sweep your house

Empty of its furniture.

 

Still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

For some new delight.

 

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

Meet them at the door laughing,

And invite them in.

 

Be grateful for whoever comes,

Because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

 

If you are struggling with accepting how you feel, please call Specialized Therapy Associates at (201) 488-6678.  We can help you gain a better understanding of the message that this emotional guide is trying to send.