It’s very easy to treat all our positive emotions like peace, love, joy and contentment as friends. But, what about feelings that arise like anger, sadness, envy, loneliness or disappointment? For the vast majority, when these come knocking on our door, they are treated more as unwanted visitors than welcome friends. We close the door in their face hoping they will just go away. In fact being part of who we are they don’t, and they can’t just get lost. The emotions we repress will always seek expression and will resurface in a host of different ways, particularly in our reactions to certain people, situations and events. To give ourselves permission to feel sad, lonely or whatever, is really the key to transformation. All negative emotions have a positive side and so anger that is befriended becomes creativity; loneliness gives way to solitude and even sadness paves the way for compassion.