Anger, freedom, support, vulnerability, trust, hope, shame, peace, fear, joy, grief and courage – The Book of Emotions opens the door to explore one emotion at a time.
And it works as a guide back to self. It’s not about the how and why we lose our feelings, it’s a way to make it easier to relearn, re-connect and recognize our feelings.
Fifteen authors shares open-heartedly their personal experiences and perspectives and gives the reader an insight of how it feels to feel.
*** The Book of Emotions —- or how it feels to feel ***
In 2017, I contributed to chapters of The Book of Emotions, compiled and curated by Anna Linder, that were being released every month. In 2018, Anna released the book in Amazon in paperback and Kindle format. It is available in most Amazon countries.
Thanks to Anna, I’m publishing my pieces here one post a time. May it move you to connect with your emotions during these tumultuous and challenging times.
You were born with joy. And it never left you. There was that sparkle in your eyes that a hardened heart melts when it sees you. In the midst of your cries, a nurturing soul would lovingly come to care for you.
You once played with such joy no one could shake you. Everyone envied how you would just gracefully fall and then rise up. Dusting off the dirt from your knees, unfazed and proceeding to let yourself feel your feet again.
There was joy in every movement, awe to every new thing you saw, free- dom to move and just be.
You didn’t ask for joy from anything outside of you. Instead, you felt joy no matter what was in front of you.
And then you started to grow up and life happened. Caught in a whirlwind of how other people treated you, what you were asked to do, what was expected of you, You let yourself be fooled that you can receive a greater kind of joy more than you’ve ever known. And that joy... everyone says you can only receive by doing, by achieving, by working hard.
They said it was meant to bring more love, success and abundance, too. So you said, “Why not? I deserve all of it.” You got caught in the maze that promised a bigger kind of joy in the end.
Until one day, maybe today, you find yourself standing, at a loss for words, at a loss for feeling.
You’ve done so much. You’ve burned yourself out. Still, you feel no awesome kind of joy. There could even be none.
Instead, you hear despair in your heart, crying like a hyena, stabbed in the belly, the life sucked out of you.
For all the time that you’ve lost. For having been deceived.
Grief is overwhelming you like no other. You spend days crying between the sheets. All the time asking yourself why you let it happen. Why you pushed yourself so much.
But what you didn’t realise was that this was the greatest gift of all... Finding out where true joy lives.
You’re feeling again, instead of doing. You’re connected unlike you were before. Though it feels tough, stand back and notice what’s new within yourself.
Stand back and notice you’re still here. You’re experiencing being human. Feel yourself within your body, and breathe through the pain that’s holding you back. Keep breathing in the moments that change from one second to the next.
Keep breathing through every tear that falls. Find your way back, True joy is rooting for you.
And when just a tiny bit of space opens up, Maybe you’ll start to hear What true joy has been calling out to you ever since.
Joy says, “I’m in the fleeting moments.
I’m right here. I am deep within your heart. I am even in the teardrops.
I know no conditions. I know no reason. I know no bounds.
I don’t ask anything of you. I am simply joy.
I live in the breath you breathe. I’m the one who opens you up.
I don’t care if it hurts. I make you want to feel.
Feel me within your bones, within your flesh. Let the river of your blood flow through your veins. And move it up to your heart.
Find that place within yourself that is both spaceous and full. Space filled with breath, Fullness in every cell.
And when you find that place, Sit just right there and marvel.
Look at your hands with new eyes. Hear the sounds rumbling inside you. Feel the tingles running across your skin. Smell and taste the sweetness.
You’ll see It’s all alright. I make it all worth it.
Because I am JOY... I am that boundless and magnificent feeling of the Joy of being alive.
Thanks for being here. This is a space for reflection, growth, and gentle truth-telling —where stories of outer adventure meet the quiet journey within. Through personal essays on healing, belonging, and becoming, I write to remember who I am — and invite you to converse with me. Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
