Have you ever had a day where you are sad, turned the news on, listened to a reporter talk about an incurable disease killing thousands of people in Africa and then felt guilty about your sadness?

Don’t do that.

Yes, Ebola outbreaks are important, but your sadness is important, and so are you.

Your disappointment, your guilt, your anger, your defeat—all of that matters.

Do compare—know that although you waited twenty minutes for a server to come to your table, there is a child who hasn’t eaten in twenty-four hours.

Having perspective never hurt anybody.

Invalidating our emotions does.

You’re starving, and your server forgot about you—that absolutely blows.

If your boss is ungrateful and didn’t say thank you for the 15 hours of over time you pulled this week–feel frustrated. You deserve to be appreciated.

You got a speeding ticket? Yeah, that does suck.

Your computer crashed and you lost a six-page assignment? Be as dramatic as you want.

Your car was towed? I’d get angry too. Paying for parking in the first place makes me furious.

Feeling sensitive after your girlfriend didn’t say thank you for the meal you made her? Feel choked.

Woke up and just feel like scowling at the world for no particular reason? Do that.

The business proposal you pitched was rejected? Feel defeated.

Got dumped?  

Shit.

Had an idea to invent something and then realized someone beat you to it? You have a right to feel completely bummed.

Your kid didn’t say thank you for driving his ass to soccer tonight and you feel irritated? Be irritated.

Didn’t get enough fresh air and sunshine and feeling a little off? Be off.

In a funk because you miss your man because he works out of town 300 days a year? Your funk matters—that’s shitty.

We get to experience so many emotions in our lives, why is their so much shame and guilt with the negative ones?

It is damaging is putting on a smile as real as Pamela Anderson’s boobs every morning in an attempt to appear super human.

Part of being human is these big, beautiful, bleeding hearts.

We are blessed to exist upon this earth with the ability to feel.

Our feelings are a gift…all of them.

I mean, you could be a rock in your next life—you owe it to the world to feel in circles.

Things could be worse, but they could also sometimes be better.

If they aren’t better, don’t shove them in your pocket, dripping in guilt because you’re better off than the homeless man you pass on the street.

It blows that he’s sleeping on newspapers and it also blows that you just dropped a thousand bucks into your transmission.

You know when you’re happy and want to shout it at the world? Call everyone and celebrate?

We need to learn to celebrate it all.

Not to be so uncomfortable with knowing we have days when we are sad, and not together.

Celebrate your sadness by feeling it.

By going inside and doing the work—and not being afraid to call a friend and say, “I’m vibrating a little low today, and need you to listen without shitting optimism.”

The sun can’t shine from your ass every day; it would be exhausting if it did.

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Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: ePi.Longo at Flickr