- up versus down
- loud versus quiet
- courage versus fear
- joy versus sadness
- anger versus patience
I feel like we spend a great deal of time analyzing emotions and learning how to feel our feelings. This is truly important. I also believe that it is important to look at the opposites. Often we can get bogged down feeling the fear, feeling the sadness, feeling the anger. I do believe that we have a choice. And while we honour the one side of the feelings we should do the same to the flipsides.
With kids heading back to school there is always a little fear and trepidation. This is normal! Whenever we encounter something new or that we are a little unsure of our natural instinct for self preservation kicks in. It is our job to teach them the flipside – the courage. To learn how to find their way through the fear with courage in order to experience the amazing things that are on the other side of that journey. It is a true life skill. I can think of so many instances in my life looking back when I only saw the fear but looking back now I can give myself a pat on the back for finding the courage. LOL and that back pat gives me joy not the sadness that the fear gives me. A big full circle moment 🙂
A recent instance was climbing some of the mountains in our recent Scotland trip. The first one was a big one. I am not a fan of heights and the increasing winds as the elevations went up did nothing to ease my mind. But I do love hiking. I faced it with courage and an equal amount of fear. Not really knowing if I physically could make it to the peak, not get blown off and then manage the fancy footwork it would require to make it down again. The whole time I was climbing I faced the internal mental battle between courage and fear/anger and patience. I managed to find a way to quieten the negative voices in my head and gave thanks for the opportunity to be doing what I was doing. It was an absolute thrill.
So much of our world seems to be laced with negativity these days. I am trying on a daily basis to approach my life from the flipside of things. The courage, patience, joy and positivity of things. I learned so much about myself on the way up those mountains and I can’t wait to face the next ones.
