Don’t try to hide from your emotions.

Anger, sadness, desperateness, hopelessness, anguish, angst, depression__don’t try to ignore any of them. It is in trying to suppress them that you cause them to grow. Instead consider each emotion as an integral part of your Life’s journey.

Someone said something that pissed you off, or you did or said something that you shouldn’t have, so you are angry. You lost something, someone, so you feel sad about it. You want something that isn’t available just now, so you are desperate. You feel that there is no hope in a situation where logically all the odds are against you. You feel anguish when you are betrayed. You seethe with angst when you find yourself alone in a fight against a system. And when nothing works your way, when you feel lost, let down and trampled over, you will be depressed. These are all real responses to real situations in real Life.

There’s no way you can escape experiencing these emotions, or more in similar situations. You feel agonized and suffer only when you try to avoid experiencing these emotions. Instead embrace them. Accept them as a facet of your Life in the present. This is the way you will be able harness the emotion to connect with your inner core and learn to “live in this world and yet be above it.” Living in this world means living amid all the chaos, trials and tribulations. Being above these means to accept Life for what it is just now and know that at your deepest core, you will be untouched by all this change, all this chaos, all this turmoil.

There’s an interesting story that Osho, the Master, says in his inimitable style. Mr. Goldberg came home from the office unexpectedly and found his wife in bed with Mr. Cohen, the next-door neighbor. Distraught and angry, he ran next door and confronted Mrs. Cohen.     ‘Mrs. Cohen!’ he cried. ‘Your husband is in bed with my wife.’     ‘Calm down! Calm down!’ Mrs. Cohen said. ‘Look, don’t take it so hard. Sit down, have a cup of tea. Relax.’ Mr. Goldberg sat quietly and drank his cup of tea. It was then that he noticed a little glint in Mrs. Cohen’s eye. Coyly she suggested, ‘You want a little revenge?’ And with that they withdrew to the couch and made love. Then they had another cup of tea, then a little more revenge, a little more tea, more revenge; more tea….Finally Mrs. Cohen looked at Mr. Goldberg and asked, ‘How about some more revenge?’     ‘I will tell you, Mrs. Cohen,’ said Mr. Goldberg quietly, ‘to be truthful, I ain’t got no hard feelings left.’ The learning, says Osho, is, be what you experience for sometime and it will fade away. You resist it, you avoid it, you will be avoiding what Life has designed for you. And so it will chase you, haunt you, torment you and not allow you to live in peace.

So face Life’s myriad emotions, celebrate its various colors. Each event will leave you emotional in its own way. Difficult times for sure will leave you with painful experiences, but, in the end, if you embraced those moments, you will feel enriched, energized and stronger after you have been through them. You will realize, without them, you wouldn’t have the opportunity to be who you are __ centered, anchored, grounded and blissful!