Today’s thoughts on allowing feelings to exist – a mini essay
Today I had a meeting with a church counsellor. She didn’t know I’m autistic because this would be the first time we met and I planned to tell her today. But at the last minute, she canceled due to an emergency; it was a situation that needed more attention than our upcoming meeting today. While I understand that people can’t help this stuff, I’m so frustrated when this happens. Because my disability is not visible I of course told her it was completely okay to see her another day.
But the fact is… I have autism. This makes my entire day out of order. I have rheumatoid arthritis. I don’t know when my legs decide to stop working. And while she couldn’t help the situation, I still have the right to feel frustrated.
That’s a thing people often neglect to realize: two things can be mutually experienced and in existence without it being wrong on anyone’s part. She has no fault in it, but neither is it my fault for having these feelings. People often shame others for feeling in a certain way, just because someone can’t help something. It’s not black and white and feelings are subjective. We have the right to feel a certain way regardless of the situation, as long as we don’t act rude or disrespectful to another person.
We really should stop policing feelings and decide what’s right and wrong when it comes to such a personal experience as someone’s feelings. It shouldn’t be dismissed as “just a feeling”, because it’s not “just” anything!