[blossom]

I definately agree that everyone needs to take care of their own needs and themselves first...otherwise how can they have anything to give anyone else, if they choose to or not?
Running ourselves into the ground just so other people won't judge us as selfish and 'bad' isn't really very helpful to anyone in the long run.

I just read that link and understand what you are saying about concentrating on one side at a time to understand the other...I think that is what I've been doing for years now. Always being all the 'right' things according to society left me feeling that I was limited because I had nothing to contrast it with. For years I believed I didn't need to get angry...but then I consciously decided to explore anger, and I don't think it's true what lots of spiritual people say, that being angry means you aren't 'spiritual'. Everyone (and everything) contains Spirit, so therefore we are all "Spiritual" it's just whether or not you are aware of it.
Getting back to anger, for an example, anger is a very powerful energy and it can be really useful if you know how to channel it appropriately ( which, as a female, has not come easily to me, and there have been alot of hits and misses, but I'm getting there), but it is something that has helped me to become free from depression as I wasn't able to express it before, and now I can...so that's progress in my books, not de-evolution.

Every emotion carries with it some wisdom, and it helps to become a more well rounded, whole individual if you let yourself have the experience of the whole of All that is made up of you, IMO.