Good And Bad Feelings…..1.Serenity is not a flat even surfaced emotional state. That would be stoicism.
2. Instead, serenity is a foundation under our emotions that allows us to feel and be thankful for our feelings.
3. I heard a good friend say “I want to be able to cry to snot and laugh pee”.I want that too.
4. A common and dangerous misunderstanding is that it is a good idea to stuff our bad feelings so we don’t have to feel them.
5 The truth is that when we stuff our bad feelings we also stuff our good feelings at the same time.
6 That leads us into a state having a perpetual feeling deprived emotional life.
7.One time a friend had spent a few hours with some loud, excited teenagers. He told me “I wish I could laugh again like those teenagers”.
8.His problem was he had so often stuffed his emotions that he had lost his ability to feel the natural urge to laugh.
9. I can’t help thinking about the laugh inducing scene in the “Mary Poppins” movie where they sang the song “I Love to Laugh”
10. I also love to laugh and to make others laugh. I am still working on my ability to cry. I once was brought to tears by a Coke ad where a child handed an exhausted football player Mean Joe Greene a coke and then Mr Green handed the kid his dirty, sweat soaked uniform jersey.
George Caywood 