10. The Law of Polarity

Everything has an opposite on the same continuum

How would you know what heat is if you didn’t experience cold? How would you know the feeling of joy if you didn’t ever feel sadness? You need one to experience the other, and this is the gist of polarity. So let’s take a moment to be grateful for the ‘bad’ things in life that allow us to experience the good things. I live in a climate where we get cold, dreary winters. But I’ve learned that it’s what makes the joy of spring such a wonderful experience, and what makes me love and appreciate the sun-filled, hot summer days even more.

All truths are but half truths and every truth is half false, there are two sides to everything, opposites are identical in nature yet different in degree

The Kybalion

We can apply the same concept to our emotions: through the despair of losing a loved one to illness, we can learn appreciate our own health, and not take for granted the time we have with your family and friends. Without sadness, how would we know what joy feels like? Without one, the other ceases to exist. All of our human emotions are part of the human experience and serve a greater purpose, whether they feel good or not.

Since all points on a continuum of emotion are necessary to provide a full experience of life, we can accept that negative emotion has its purpose. If we’re angry or sad or frustrated- it’s a valid emotion that is there for a reason- what is it teaching you? We tend to resist and repress these emotions on the ground that they don’t feel good. Once we go beyond that though, there are important nuggets of information that contribute to our emotional and personal growth.

Advice:

Negative emotions are inevitable but necessary. Without them we wouldn’t know what positive emotions are. The goal is to accept the emotion, and instead of focusing on resisting it, accept it and focus on how it can help you going forward.