When it comes down to it, everything we feel has been felt by someone else to some degree or another. While our individual life situations vary, how we react and respond to what happens always results in some sort of emotion. Whether we’re stuck at home an hour drive away or a 10 hour flight away from our family during the holidays, being kept apart is being kept apart. The feeling stays the same. Thus if we boil down all of our fears, anxieties, and worst case scenarios, we would find a bottom line of emotions.
If we take a step back and consider this bottom line, we’d see that at the end of the day we’re all suffering from the same types of grief and celebrating the same types of joy. This connection can be used in everyday conversation instead of shielded or shunned away from. The more we can openly share our emotions with one another -and ourselves- the freer we’ll be.
The following practice consists of two parts: internal and external emotional honesty. Both require the same amount of effort (and honesty), so the challenge is to practice both equally in your daily life. If you only partake in half, you’ll notice the lack of balance. This makes it difficult to find your true center -who you really are and how you really feel. Thus you must practice emotional honesty in all aspects of your life in order to live authentically.