What are Feelings?

I was recently inspired to write a poem about feelings. No-one was more surprised than I was, when in the middle of the night the words appeared to tumble out of me. I hope you enjoy reading my first attempt at poetry even half as much as I enjoyed writing it…

Feelings are neither good or bad, big or small, loud or quiet, unless we make them so

They are what they are without us needing to chase, analyse or bury them

Like the natural rhythm of life, they come and they go

A barometer of the landscape of our minds

We may not like insecure or anxious feelings that visit from time to time, but

Feelings are not a prediction of what is to come or a statement of truth about what has past

They exist nowhere other than as illusions created in the moment

A barometer of the landscape of our minds

We are not defined by our feelings, it’s simply not who we are

Any more than the colour of our hair, our eyes or our skin is who we are

They are merely following familiar well-trodden pathways in the brain

A barometer of the landscape of our minds

I can feel sad when something saddens me and know I’m OK

I can feel scared when something scares me and know I’m OK

When we learn to be wary or seek to deny them it’s a misunderstanding of what they are

A barometer of the landscape of our minds

I can feel worried when I tell myself stories about the future and know I’m OK

The more I believe the stories, the more the feeling grows and I mistake it for something else

But like milk, feelings too have a sell by date, a time to notice the suffering endured

A barometer of the landscape of our minds

We are not able to control or predict what’s going to happen in our lives

Life unfolds, we are designed to embrace the full range of feelings knowing that we are OK

When the noise subsides, we fall back into peacefulness and see the truth that feelings are just

A barometer of the landscape of our minds

What are feelings? Nothing more than a useful indicator of the weather system within us

Their purpose to keep us moving forward through the ups and downs of life

Hold them lightly and marvel with gratitude at the gift we’ve been given

A barometer of the landscape of our minds