"I don't just cry, I pour." ~Rupi Kaur

Emotions are hard.

But if we deny ourselves emotion, we deny ourselves the very foundation of human existence. We deny ourselves the capacity to live life to its fullest potential.

Life ain't all unicorns and rainbows. No matter how hard we try, we cannot avoid the often harsh realities of living- which include emotions such as sadness, pain, anger, and other emotions that just make us feel gross. We can only go on denying our emotions for so long until finally, they bubble over.

To attempt to live pursuing and acknowledging only happiness, to seek happiness at all costs, to be as happy as possible, is, I think, a waste of our existence. It's a simple concept: you cannot know happiness if you do not know pain or sadness or hurt. I think, instead, we should live our life by experiencing all our emotions as they come- to cry when we are sad, to shrivel when we are in pain, and to laugh when we are happy. Our existence should not be for the goal of being happy- it should be to exist to our fullest potential. The only way that is possible is by allowing ourselves to experience everything that makes us human.

Our emotions do not make us weak. I know how hard it can be to feel vulnerable, to feel so penetrable when I am feeling all the feels. But by suppressing those emotions, I am suppressing very important experiences in my life. I know happiness only because I have cried, sobbed in fact, retreated into myself on days where I feel indifferent, but also because I have smiled and laughed. Fear of emotions will only block our ability to be truly happy.

What makes us happy is not the only component of our identities, either. In order to construct a full identity, we have to know what makes us hurt, what makes us sad, and what makes us happy.

All of this may seem kind of depressing. But it's a reality. Pain is a reality. Everything other than happiness is a reality. But if we deny ourselves reality, are we really living?

For me, all of this is actually revitalizing. It's not that I am excited to feel pain- I know pain, and I don't like it, and I can't imagine that anyone does- but, it validates all my emotions. It validates my experience, my narrative. It validates my existence altogether.

So feel all the feels. Feel them all wholeheartedly, without reservation. In the end, everything will be alright.