“Master your emotions.” “Don’t be a slave to your feelings.” These direct people into actions that repress their emotions but never actually assists anyone other than advising people to shove feelings down and claim the conqueror of your inner-self, but what a person is actually doing is not acknowledging their emotional needs, which can turn ugly.
Our emotions are not things to conquer, but to feel. Our emotions add depth to our existence. They are a snapshot of our internal response to everything.
Emotions should be felt, in all the wide varieties they come in, even the worst ones.
This message to repress emotions is a response from society to control people’s emotional expression. We lose the ability to empathize and be compassionate with one another if everyone is not being authentic and instead an unfeeling automaton that constantly regulates emotions.
Let’s not repress emotions but process our emotions and heal from the ones that need healing. Why am I feeling this when this happens? Where is the root issue? How can I fix this situation or make it better?
This doesn’t mean we take things out on other people? Not at all. Voice your emotions to the people around you, let them know how you are doing and that you need time alone to process. This is how we create a compassionate society when we share our pain and hurt in a healthy way. This is not an allowance for people to be awful to other people, but to learn to voice their feelings in a healthy way and maintain respect and boundaries for those around them and also respect themselves and what they are going through.
If someone needs to rage, then they need to voice that, and find time alone to get their anger out. It will only reappear and worsen if they do not find the root issue of their anger. Anger, pain, hurt, jealousy, and hate all intensify if never resolved.
Finding a licensed therapist to help work through these emotions and start healing, can be a huge step in our emotional processing. Be honest. Be open. Don’t be afraid to feel and share.
This world is richer when we share from our heart. We learn from each other. We sympathize and empower others when we listen and support them.
I think back to some of my hardest times in my life when I shared my sorrow with people around me, and they reminded me the beauty in humanity and that compassion exists. It’s not just sorrow or pain, but the joys of this world and sharing your happiness and love with those around you. Your happiness and hope can uplift those who need it, or they might also share that same love and joy, and you strengthen the bonds that we all share as human beings.
Be open to listening to your friends, family, and strangers when they need to share. Ask your friends, family, or strangers, if they are struggling with processing emotions, and if they need to share.
Let’s not conquer emotions, but feel and heal.
Let’s listen and help.
Let’s teach a healthy way to process and share our feelings.
From the river to the sea, may this whole world be free.
Feel.