Not exactly sure how things got to be this way, but it is clear as day that we live in a world where people think expressing your feelings is a sign of weakness. I hope the readers understand that I by no means want to come off as a know it all, what I want you to see is I am trying to help by putting this out there.
I’m going to start off by saying that no matter who you are and what hand you’re dealt in life, you are going to experience good feelings as well as bad ones. If you’re at all familiar with me and my background, it’ll be no shock to hear that my life hasn’t ever been a walk in the park. Not that I’m the type of person who believes such a life exists, but I never grew up with the white picket fence scenario. There wasn’t ever a time I thought life was all rainbows and butterflies. Due to the given circumstances, I knew better than that. Things have been and are still from time to time, difficult. I was eight years old when I was diagnosed with anxiety. There were just times I felt scared about things that were clearly irrational fears, plus everything traumatic I’d been through I think had slightly begun to take an emotional toll I felt scared of things I had no business fearing. It was then when I began talking about my feelings. My fears. My thoughts. You name it. I cannot say from the get-go that I started out my life always laying things out on the table. It is something I learned over time. I began to realize it felt like a large storm cloud hovering above me had been cleared and the sunshine was free to wash over me after I’d been upfront and honest.
Sure, talking about sensitive things felt like I was ridding myself of the flu (more to the point, it wasn’t easy getting everything out in the open.) However, just like you begin to feel better after getting over a bug, you’ll see that you are in a much better frame of mind and even have a better sense of self once you have discussed what could have remained troubling thoughts.
To this day, I continue with my life on that same path. When there is something that could be causing me distress, I make sure that I talk to someone about how I’m feeling. My rock has been and always will be my mom. She is a great woman and taught me head on that the truth can set one free.
Freeing my mind of the good, the bad and the ugly has made me that much stronger than I’d be if I weren’t able to express myself.
Having been around for almost 26 years…I’m well aware not everyone feels like they can express their feelings. There are many different reasons why they’d feel that way. As I said at the beginning of this piece, they think it is weak to let anyone see that they are emotionally struggling. Therefore they’d like to just keep it together as best as they can without pinpointing or even making it obvious that they really need a venting session.Maybe they are afraid of the things they need to say would be looked at as unimportant. I am here to tell you, that is never a fact. Even if there is a person out there who disregards your inner feelings, there will always be one with a listening ear, if you seek them out anyway…I felt the need to write this article because life is hard. Not just for me at times, but I know that we all have our fair share of bad days and tough times. Despite what you may or may not have been told, it is not healthy to keep things bottled up.
Maybe at first, you’ll feel like you’ve got it all under control, but eventually, without ever being able to express yourself, you will begin to feel dehumanized. Honestly.
Time for one last metaphor. Picture this. I’m sure when most of you are sad, you feel relieved just to cry it out. Imagine the one person who holds back the tears. Time and time again. There will come a day when they are just about to burst. That is a perfect example of what I am trying to sum up with all of this. After all the hurt I’ve had in my life, and what I’ve been able to make it through, I have a big desire to help as many people as I can get through their hurdles as well. Being able to discuss what’s on my mind has helped me reach that doorway that leads to the path of emotional recovery. Of course, at the end of the day, you will make your choices. If you feel you’re not at the point where you can or even want to talk about things, I suppose you don’t have to jump on board. One thing I can promise you, the reader, is whenever you do decide to take that step, you’ll be so glad you did. I hope all of you take care of yourselves. Emotionally as well as any other way.