Dr. Z recently wrote an article for MediBank on how people can begin to cope with their intense feelings. She presents the following scenario:

Suppose you and I are having a conversation, and you are given two choices:

Option A: You never have to have these awful feelings of abandonment, loneliness, guilt, disappointment, or other overwhelming feelings, but you will also lose your capacity to feel love, caring, and joy with others. You won’t feel emotional pain and you also won’t feel connection with others.

Option B: You have all the capacity to feel love for the people around you, care for the things that matter to you, and feel joy for small things in life, and you also have the capacity to feel the pain that comes with struggles, frustrations, and challenges of daily living. You live the life you want to live, with both the sweet and the sour.

Which option do you choose? Would you be willing to drop the struggle and let those feelings be?

She goes on to explain what it means to choose your feelings, to learn to accept them, and how doing so can help you move forward in your life. She says,

To choose, to learn to have them without becoming them.

The article also offers an exercise to begin practicing this, by checking in with yourself and taking greater notice of your emotional state.

To try the exercise and read the full article, visit the page.