Not Every Emotion Needs to be Fixed

It’s a common experience — when emotions become intense or overwhelming, our first instinct is often to get rid of them. We look for solutions. We seek relief. We reach out, hoping someone can save us from what we’re feeling.

That response makes sense. Emotional pain can be disorienting, even frightening. And support is deeply important — especially when the weight of what we’re feeling is too much to hold on our own.

But not every emotion needs a solution.

Emotions aren’t problems to be solved. They’re signals. Messages. Guides. They arise not because something is broken, but because something matters.

When we treat emotions — especially the painful or difficult ones — as things that must be fixed, we risk intensifying them. We may unintentionally reinforce the belief that there’s something wrong with us for feeling the way we do. That we’re broken, or that we need to be rescued from ourselves.

But there’s another way.

Rather than rushing to find the fix, we can choose to slow down. To take a step back. To ground. To breathe. And then, when we’re ready, to come back to the feeling — not with urgency, but with curiosity.

In therapy, the goal isn’t to eliminate emotion. It’s to build a different relationship with it. One that’s rooted in tolerance, self-compassion, and understanding.

The work is not about escaping what we feel, but learning how to be with what we feel. How to move through it. How to listen for the need or message it carries. And when those emotions are too intense to navigate alone, the work is about offering support that empowers rather than rescues. Guidance rather than solutions.

Because when we begin to relate to our emotions in this way, they become something else entirely — not enemies, but companions. Not something to fear, but something to learn from.

Our emotions can reveal our deepest needs. They can point to where our boundaries lie. They can show us what hurts — and, just as importantly, how we might begin to heal.

And in that sense, our emotions — even the most difficult ones — are not a burden to fix. They’re a wisdom to follow.