Do you find yourself believing you shouldn’t be anxious, angry, sad, or depressed? Do you believe that we are supposed to be happy all the time?

Many teens I work with say that their overall goal is to never feel anxious again and just “feel happy.” Of course we want to feel happy, but do we believe this is how we are supposed to feel all of the time, or even most of the time?

Life was designed to give us an array of experiences, along with an array of emotions to feel. This is what I call the rainbow of your life. It is only in this realm we experience the entire human emotions.

What if we could stop seeing emotions as “good” or “bad” and just see them as emotions, or energy in our body? How much more easily would we be able to sit with them, allow them, get curious, and see them as a teacher helping us become more aware of ourselves and our surroundings?

If all we saw was yellow, we wouldn’t be able to see how beautiful yellow really is. Or that when yellow is mixed with blue, it can create green. It’s these kinds of contrasts and experiences with emotions that enable us to more fully comprehend the blessings of challenges, the reality of our humanness, and the richness of life.

I heard one definition of happiness this week: “Happiness is the lack of wanting anything to be different than it is in any given moment.”

It reminded me that true, overall happiness is being in the present moment, whatever it is. Feeling a strong emotion can be purposeful, useful, and helpful. If you can be there with intention without getting stuck, you  can step back anytime to see more colors of the palette. The wider lens is always available. The colorful landscape is always there. It is all about zooming in and out as needed.