If we don’t give poignant emotions space to move, they collect and become static—like a lake.
This is a problem because lakes have no means of filtration. They just collect and hold—trash, toxicity, diseases, and all. This isn’t a good formula for life.
Life is movement. Death is no movement.
The problem escalates, of course, when what opens up into our lake is a sewage drain that pours in more toxicity via news, media, gossip, drama, and hate.
…And then we wonder why we can become so overwhelmingly anxious, irritable, and befuddled inside?!
The solution, then, is to become an emotional river instead.
Rather than allowing what’s emotionally swelling to be suppressed, we should find ways we can give those feelings space to move.
Space that doesn’t come from distraction (anything that pulls our attention away from our emotional awareness is a distraction), but space that comes from a place of careful inward mindfulness.
Writing, meditating, therapeutic conversations, etc—are all great examples.
And just a few minutes a day can give emotions the space they need to keep flowing through (and eventually out from) our systems.