Your Feelings Are Valid

One of the most important lessons I've learned when it comes to communication and human connection, is the understanding that feeling heard is at the core of our desires.

We often resort to communicating in a "you're wrong and I'm right" paradigm simply because we don't feel understood. Feelings are neither wrong, nor right. It's the action that follows that can be judged as so. 

Validating our own feelings and understanding that they are a normal part of the human process creates the space for awareness so that we are not dictated by them.

That space between our feelings and our reaction is our awareness. In that space we become the observer. In that space we can begin to understand why we are feeling the way we do. In that space we can make the decision to carry out conscious actions, rather than hurtful actions. Your feelings are valid, but that does not validate any action that stems from them.

The power of this lesson is in accepting that we all crave having our feeling validated, and because of this, most of us don't show up to conversations with the space necessary to understand and validate another person's feelings. This lack of understanding fuels the emotions present and creates a feeling of separation, of otherness, placing us further away from connection. It is up to us to understand our own feelings, to listen to our own pain and process our emotions. By providing this understanding for ourselves, we begin to approach a space of consciousness, a space of clarity. We show up with the capacity to process more.