From Mac ’n Cheese to Mastering Your Feelings: How to Expand Your Emotional Palate

When you were a kid, nothing beat mac ’n cheese for dinner. Even the kind from a box, complete with that packet of neon-orange powdered “cheese.”

Kids love simple, mild flavors. They’re comforted by familiar textures. But as we grow, we get exposed to new spices, flavors, and foods. We go from mild cheddar to spicy Korean BBQ. Our palate evolves with our life experience.

Feelings work the same way.

When we’re young, we also have a limited feelings palate. Kids don’t like feeling mad, sad, bad, or afraid. They’d much rather feel happy and safe all the time.

But life doesn’t work like that.

Without even trying, life will hand you all kinds of opportunities to experience a wide range of emotions:

• Boredom while sitting through a lecture.

• Disappointment reading a job rejection email.

• Uncomfortable tension during a hard conversation with your spouse.

• Frustration while wrestling with technology that just won’t cooperate.

Your human experience is meant to expand your feelings palate far beyond “happy” and “safe.” It’s meant to include anger, sadness, fear, disappointment, and frustration—alongside joy, gratitude, and love.

The more open you are to feeling all the feelings, the more capable you become at creating the life you truly want.

That’s because feelings drive action. When you’re willing to feel discomfort, you stop avoiding the hard steps that lead to growth. You realize you’re not just along for the ride—you’re the designer of your own life.

With intention, you can choose what your life will include—and what it won’t. And it all starts with this one skill: the willingness to feel your feelings.

It might sound like a big promise for such a small shift, but it’s true. Expanding your feelings palate is the key to designing the life you’re meant to live.

So next time you’re served a “dish” of discomfort, frustration, or fear, think of it as adding another flavor to your emotional menu. Try it. Taste it. Learn from it.

Because just like your grown-up taste buds appreciate more than mac ’n cheese… your grown-up emotional palate is meant to handle so much more than just happy and safe.