All about the feelings!

Wow, seems I've not blogged for a few months now... I guess I just haven't felt like it. Plus it's been a very busy time for the Showbears with our May show at Manto going down a real treat :-) so much so that we took selections of it to the stage at Bradford Pride and stormed it :-) We've a number of things planned for Manchester Pride at the end of August with a float in the Parade, a main stage appearance and a huge show at the Birdcage on the afternoon of Sunday 29th - please support us in these adventures!

Lots of things have happened in the last few weeks on the theme of feelings... One person I thought was a good friend (though we didn't see each other often) posted something on Facebook that hurt my feelings. When I told him so, he hid behind the 'oh it was meant as sarcasm' line, told me I couldn't take a joke and dumped me off his friends list. That was a bit sad....

Then someone else I barely even know told me to cheer up and stop posting so much 'feeling sorry for yourself' stuff on Facebook and Twitter. I had a look through and I don't think I do that particularly more than anyone else does... funny the impression someone can get of you! I posted something about not being told what to post, that I'll post how I feel when I feel it... which then prompted another person to ask if I was having a go at them for telling people to think positive! It's all so complicated!

But these things did make me think. I agree that finding positives in situations is a good thing. But you can't tell someone to be happy or to 'snap out of it'... Why? Because feelings are things we cannot control. Every time we have an emotion it is a valid reaction based on our experiences in life, and it's totally involuntary. We can't stop ourselves having these reactions. All we can do is hope to sometimes control our responses to our emotions.

It's easy to say, but maybe our first reaction to feelings (positive or negative) should mostly be 'wait'. Everything becomes a little clearer with a little time to reflect...