i've been told many times through my years practicing yoga to "honor my emotions." for awhile i was not sure of how to reconcile those words with what they tell me in meetings--to let go of negative emotions such as fear and anger and resentment. i think very early on i began to equate "letting go of" with "suppressing." and when i discovered that-- i learned that if you take something as subjective and arbitrary as an emotion and ascribe a label to it then it ultimately becomes repressive. because so much of our humanity is contingent upon our emotional responses to the actions and feelings of those around us, the events that we experience, and the opportunities that we encounter. and if we label those--or our responses to those--as good or bad or positive or negative i believe that we short change ourselves of lessons that can be learned if we truly examine our feelings and how they affect our spiritual being as a whole.

the first step of AA (or really of any 12 step program) is "we admitted we were powerless over [alcohol] and that our lives had become unmanageable." the 12th step is "having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps we carry the message to the [alcoholic] who still suffers" when we acknowledge our fear and anger and come face to face with our demons, that is when we gain strength and empowerment. that is when we take the powerlessness and un-manageability and turn it into peace and serenity and spiritual enlightenment. if we gain the 12th step through the first step, then who are we to label such emotions as resentment and fear as negative? i'm learning to look at my fear and anger as a gift...