All Feelings are Welcome

For about three days I have had a deep feeling of sadness.  I wasn’t sure why.  What is causing this sadness?    In the past I would have tried to ignore that feeling.  I might have distracted myself with work, or scrolled social media in search of that dopamine hit, or searched for anything outside of myself to make that feeling go away. 

One of the tenants of conscious, peaceful, empowered parenting is that all feelings are welcome. With that in mind, I turned my phone off, I meditated, I sat with the feelings.  When I did that I allowed the feelings to come to the surface.  At one point the question wasn’t what is causing this sadness?  It was what is not causing this.  A pandemic, a dying planet, aging parents, missing my best friend... there is so much to feel sad about.  I admitted that sadness was a very appropriate emotion at this time. 

Then, I went outside and felt the warm sun on my face. I thought of my son and how I was looking forward to picking him up from school. There was room for sadness and it didn’t overwhelm me.  There was also room for deep gratitude.  If I can do this for myself, I know I can teach this.  All feelings are welcome.