November is the month in which we choose to remember those who have died. We wear a poppy on our lapel to outwardly demonstrate this reflection and as a mark of respect specifically for those who have given their lives fighting for our country.
There may be a temptation to try to avoid thoughts which make us feel sad. It is an emotion that can feel heavy and hard to process but it is such an important emotion to recognise and make room for. We don’t have to “fix” feeling sad. We don’t have to react with immediacy to make it go away as soon as it shows up. We do need to learn to sit with sadness for a while and listen to what it has to say.
Our emotions are visitors – them come and they go. As humans, we never stay in one fixed emotional state forever. Our feelings communicate to us something that we need to feel, process, or pay attention to so welcome them in, allow them to exist for a little while even if it feels uncomfortable, and then let them move along to be replaced with something new.
It can be argued that only if you have experienced and understood sadness, are you able to experience and appreciate feeling joy. Each of us are a spectrum of emotions and there is room for them all in the rich and varied tapestry of life.
