I have been learning more about the mindfulness approach to emotions, and it has been very helpful for me. Instead of judging an emotion like anger as bad and tying to shove it out of the way, I just acknowledge its presence and the reactions it is causing in me. I notice my breath becoming labored, and my pulse becoming faster. Here’s the important thing to mindfulness — don’t intellectualize the emotion, just feel it.

It is important to feel our feelings and not to push away an uncomfortable feeling when it arises. Honestly, the harder you push away an emotion, the deeper it becomes lodged inside you only to resurface later in your relationships or your health. There is so much talk about releasing our unwanted emotions, as if we could hit an eject button and they would fly away. I believe the way to release them is by moving through them. We release by feeling completely, with acceptance toward ourselves and all our varied emotions.

For more info on mindfulness: Mindfulness of Emotions by Insight Meditation Center

Most women have not even been able to touch this anger, except to drive it inward like a rusted nail.
Adrienne Rich

“Deep unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state.” George Eliot