“Being grateful does not mean that everything is necessarily good. It just means that you can accept it as a gift.” - Roy T. Bennett

One of the fundamental laws of mindset is how our vibration is directly related to the outer world we have either already created or want to create. Leslie teaches that vibration is a “medium for transferring signals,” but what exactly does that mean?

Love and gratitude fall in the higher vibrational frequencies and anger, sadness, etc. are found in lower frequencies. If “answers” and inspiration are found at higher frequencies, then does that mean that we must suppress or avoid our feelings of sadness, anger, or other emotions that carry lower vibrations? This is a topic that has been a source of much confusion for me, and ultimately brought about a lot of pain as I continually suppressed all the “negative” feelings, which would eventually bubble up from deep within and create a period of depression for me.

I recently experimented with a new line of thinking: What if the negative emotions are not actually the problem, but the thinking stuff that goes along with those emotions is? I put this theory to the test as I was going through a particularly challenging period of time. Rather than suppressing my sadness, hurts, and anger, I allowed myself to feel them. I felt all the yuck for the experience I was having. The reality was that what I was going through was rough. It was physically and emotionally painful and that was not something I could deny. However, I consciously made the effort to not allow the emotions to control my thoughts.

When I felt overwhelming sadness, I recognized it as just sadness rather than allowing it to morph into thoughts of self-pity or how nothing ever goes right for me. As the emotional pains came up, I gave them space, but did not give space to thoughts that the world is out to get me or any other kind of victim-mentality. Yes, my situation was not an easy one. I cried. A lot. And in all the feelings that were there, I held onto my vision. I continued to believe that even in all that was going on in front of me, my dreams would be realized just on the other side of it. As I held onto the positive thoughts, the “proof” that I was in a higher vibrational frequency (despite all the negative emotions I was feeling) was found in each miracle that fell into place, step by step, day by day. Every day provided me with just a little more evidence that what I was dreaming of was on its way.

The lessons I learned in this are invaluable. I no longer feel that I must reject any and all negative emotions. In fact, it’s in the feeling of those emotions that true joy and peace are felt. (Think of the Law of Polarity.) Without experiencing the pain and turmoil, I cannot truly appreciate the joy and peace that inevitably settle within me after a storm.