As babies, if we are lucky, someone looks into our eyes and mirrors our experience back to us…our smiles, our hurts, our engagement with the world. And when someone looks back at us and mirrors our smiling, this teaches us that our experience, our feeling is valid and real. 

As adults, we are having daily interactions that elicit emotional responses from us - laughter, smiles, tears, heartache. And your experience is real and valid.