“Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.” –Kahlil Gibran (On Reason and Passion from The Prophet)
Our society makes us look at emotions as ‘irrational’ and something which we should avoid at all costs and follow only ‘the sanity’ of our mind if we want to achieve success in life.
Many people believe that emotions are completely useless because they are not practical, and they can’t help us achieve anything.
However, by emphasizing and valuing rationality over all other human qualities, our society has caused internal conflict and imbalance which results in cultural decay.
Emotional intelligence is just as important as intellectual intelligence. Without the compassion and the vivacity that our emotions bring us – we shouldn’t call ourselves human.
Emotions play a huge role in the way we experience life, whether they are positive or negative. They make us more alive, passionate, gentle, kind, compassionate. Our emotions make us human.
Our emotions are also the guides that lead us to the right path. When we feel anxious, hurt, and stressed, that’s often a sign that something is wrong or something in our life needs to change.
Emotions are our motivators, our catalysts of actions that push us to either make drastic changes in our life or be grateful and happy for where we stand in life and what we have.
So, allow yourself to really experience the raw emotions. Feel them physically. Embody them. Express them.
Then, ask yourself: “What is this emotion trying to tell me?” and act accordingly.
Don’t hold yourself back from feeling. Be proud of your emotions as they are your greatest gift and power.
