There are so many different ways we use the word “feelings” in psychology and spirituality that it can be very confusing. Your feelings are as important and as much a part of you as your thoughts and your body. That is to say, you have feelings, but you are not your feelings.
So firstly, deep feelings of grief due to loss, anger due to violation or injustice, and depression due to an inability to express or be authentic are neither negative nor disempowering. They are actually deep responses to something real in the human experience. The only thing necessary with these kinds of feelings is to deeply feel them. Let them wash over us like waves on the shore, without getting caught in the undertow.
Secondly, feelings that are triggered responses to someone or something, are not facts about a situation. They are clues to beliefs, expectations, projections, or perspectives that we have that are from old patterns or experiences in our past. These feelings certainly need to be felt, but not acted upon or given too much space in our consciousness, because they are not based on spiritual truth or even current reality. Feeling them and following them to their source will give us access to what needs to be healed, cleaned up or cleaned out of the programs running us from the subconscious mind.
Finally, our feeling of Truth is both our intuition of Reality and our conviction that this Reality is available to us to experience and participate in. The feeling of rightness, presence, love, and connection are all proof of our alignment with a deeper spiritual reality. Feeling these feelings and following them to their source allows us to have a lived experience, not just an intellectual understanding, of Truth and the Nature of Reality.
So, what should we do with our feelings? Let’s start by simply feeling them and seeing where that leads us.