They Bubble Up and Bring us Down

Being an adult means being able to handle our emotions, or at least living our lives under the perception that emotions are in check. Most of the time that is easy until life throws us a curve ball, a big change, a wonderful surprise or a great loss. It is in times of stress when our emotions take over, become unruly and we revert back to our survival methods. Those methods may include cleaning things, eating things, sleeping, avoiding, lashing out or any combination of all of those reactions. We do whatever we can do to give ourselves the illusion of control as our emotions are rambling out of control.

In this page from my 5 Stages of Grief journal I wanted to illustrate that emotions are like bubbles. They linger around, rise up, some pop, some keep going and yet they always feel like they are lurking just below the surface waiting to explode. I had a friend see this piece and she said, “YES!” That is exactly how it has felt. She has experienced multiple deaths in her family within one year, a lot to handle and a lot of emotions to bubble up.

It is important to note that emotions are not the enemy. They are the raw manifestations of how our mind, soul and body deal with our circumstances or situations. Our emotions bring to life the internal dealings from life. They give us the freedom to be angry, depressed, happy, silly, to cry, to scream, to even nap way too long. It is our emotions that pull all the pieces of our life together and have the power to make it feel like everything is falling apart. When we choose not to deal with our emotions we are ignoring an important element of what it is to be human, to feeling, and to be whole.

Our emotions are what bubbles up to give us the power to express our inner selves, and they have the power to bring us back down to reality. Tears are just as important as uncontrolled laughter. Sad and funny, sorrowful, joyous, calm and erratic all work tougher to make us who we are. Being our true selves means dealing with all levels, sizes, shapes and intensities of our emotions. So let those bubbles rise and fall, fill and pop in order to help us be the best version of ourselves.