Are you living like a Human?

It’s 4 days into the New Year, are you living like a Human?

So often we hear “Smile!/be happy/chin up/it can’t be that bad/get over it!” It often feels like we have to programme ourselves like Robots, that we have to remove negativity from our hard drive in order to act and feel a certain way, that if we have an ‘off day’ that we have somehow failed as a Human Being, that negative emotion is not permitted! Well I'm here to tell you that it absolutely is OK to have an off day! That we are allowed to feel negative emotions, that they are necessary to life and that we should give negativity the same acknowledgement that we give positivity in order to manage our emotions better. It is vital though that the balance between positive and negative is in proportion, with I think we can all agree, positivity being the predominant of the two in the long run.  

We all feel the pressures of everyday life and if we kept all of our negativity inside and did not let a tiny bit out every now and then, it would all get stored up until we could no longer contain it and then more than likely; Boom! We’d explode! emotional chaos ensuing because we have not managed our feelings in an appropriate manner. We often believe that if we get mad or sad or angry that this is a failing of some kind, that we will require forgiveness for ‘slipping away from positivity’; whereas actually these are all natural Human emotions! We need to accept that negativity is a part of life, that we could not fully appreciate positivity without its ever lingering presence.   

Although I am a huge fan of Happiness, there are of course genuine circumstances where sadness, anger, fear, annoyance, disappointment etc. are all frankly very valid emotions to be displayed, there are certainly circumstances where they are not. I do believe however that if we manage emotion properly then we all can live our lives utilising the whole range of emotions that we possess and not feel in any way ashamed or remorseful in doing so, that we can have our ‘off days’ and not apologise for them! All we ask for is a little understanding when doing so. This is of course on the premise that you are not holding onto the negative feeling for weeks, that you are able to get out of bed on a morning, that you can stop crying in order to hold a conversation. We will find instances nonetheless where people find managing emotion difficult, some that cannot get out of bed in the morning, they may be aware that their emotions are ‘out of hand’, and they may require intervention and support. I also clarify that I do not condone in anyway violent or illegal behaviour, and by stating that I believe for example anger is ‘allowed’, I do not give approval to use it illegally. I simply suggest that we are all wired with these emotions and that it is not a failing if we display them, providing that we are not breaking the law or hurting others in the process. We are simply conveying our natural Human behaviour and although it would be extremely welcome, we cannot always live up to the expectation of being happy every single day.

So go on, take the pressure off, live like a Human today and fulfil your criteria, because we are after all, all Human.