Your Feelings Matter

I recently saved the from a post on Facebook. I had been wanting to write about that very topic for some time. Too many times a week I hear clients dismiss their feelings because "someone else has it worse." The fact is, yes, that is often true but that does not lessen the feelings of pain, sadness, etc. that my client is experiencing.
We are allowed to feel whatever we are feeling regardless if someone else is suffering more. How we respond and react to those feelings is under our control but our feelings are never wrong.
Sometimes I am sad or mad and I can think of many examples of people who have it worse, but that doesn't mean my feelings are not valid. I am often happy and in a good mood but never think "well someone else has it better than me right now so I shouldn't be happy." So why do we do that with sadness and pain.
It can be powerful to respond to sadness by looking for why we are grateful. Not because we are wrong to feel sad or need to get over it, but because it can make us feel better. And yet, it is also okay to sit with the sadness for some time. As long as we are not hurting ourselves or others, we can survive uncomfortable feelings.