Emotional Exploration > Emotional Suppression
I will begin this piece with an excerpt from a previous post of mine, Your Internal World is a Reflection of your Internal World:
Emotions define the highs and lows of our life. Our “best times” are synonymous with our “happiest times,” which gives us the ability to quantitatively measure the quality of our lives at different times. We think, when did we feel the happiest? and then we remember what we were doing that made our lives so great at that time. They play such an important role in the course of our lives because they are inescapable; we are forced to feel them, regardless of how we deal. We can try to suppress, ignore, work through, or drug them away; but the feeling is there, and the feeling doesn’t lie.
Emotions are raw, honest reflections that are unavoidable. The best way to harness something so honest is to create an honest foundation for them to be based on, and go from there. There is no hiding from the Truth, there is only reflecting it.
Ah, where to begin.
Negative emotions do not feel good. Emotions such as sadness, jealousy, annoyance, guilt, fear, frustration, and many more are often suppressed because we simply don’t want to feel them. We equate the bad feelings that negative emotions bring to inconveniences, such as spilling your coffee or dropping your ice cream cone. It doesn’t feel good and there seems to be nothing good to come from it; however, negative emotions should be equated to unappealing chores, such as taking out the trash or making your bed. These tasks are inconvenient, but necessary. Same with negative emotions.
With the intent to be positive toward one’s self and towards others, we frequently attempt to just suppress negative emotions — “I shouldn’t feel so jealous of her. I’ll force myself to like her.” Stop right there. Just like feeling a fever or a headache, negative emotions is your body is trying to communicate with you.
Exploring why you feel a negative emotion is a portal to self-discovery and peace of mind. Finding the root cause of your negative emotions is always a learning experience; being aware of what exactly causes you to feel which emotions is a step towards self-awareness.
Rather than thinking, “Oh, she’s a nice girl, I shouldn’t be jealous of her.” Our minds should think, “What exactly is making me jealous of her?”
In my experience, I’ve found that the answer to this particular question often leads to me confronting an insecurity I didn’t know I had. Am I jealous of her because she seems happy and successful? How do I know she’s actually happy and successful by her standards? Am I not happy and successful?
Questioning these types of emotions guides you to where you may have room for growth, whether that be “I need to stop allowing myself to be treated unfairly” or “I need to get my shit together”. All emotions are a reflection of yourself.
Emotions are such a personal, internal, fundamental meter of where your strengths and weaknesses lie that it’s seldom a reflection of another person. Even if you get to the bottom of your emotions to find that you have been wronged by someone else, it becomes a question of where you went wrong in allowing this person into your space; which red flags did you miss? Where was there a miscommunication? What steps can you take to ensure that this doesn’t happen to you again?
Dismissing a person, situation, or opportunity because it makes you feel bad is a rejection of an opportunity for growth.
Digging to the root of your emotions leads you to a higher understanding of yourself, bringing you closer to the Truth.
Don’t say no before you ask why.
Have a blessed day.
