Silencing Our Emotions Poisons The Soul
You notice that you have to say it, but you hold back. You know that there is something inside you that is struggling to come out, but you do not allow it. You are afraid of being rejected, fear of showing yourself vulnerable, feelings of shame that make you rethink what you are feeling… However, you are not aware that silencing our emotions poisons the soul.
In the end this attitude will end up being a constant. You will discover yourself between “yes” and “no” every time you need to express what you feel. How many times have you felt guilty for not being brave to allow the words to flow uncontrollably from your mouth? How much have you regretted for not letting out what your soul screams? Perhaps it is time to take more seriously that phrase that we all know, but that we prefer to ignore: “who swallows a lot, in the end drowns”.
Silencing our emotions has a price
From a young age they teach us to silence our emotions. We begin to hold back the tears when they need to surface, we begin not to say what we really feel because others can reject us and rejection bitter and hurts. Fear begins to settle in us in the form of a gag for our emotions and our feelings.
Anger, anger and sadness are negative emotions that we have learned to contain because showing them leaves us in evidence, projecting the image that we are human beings incapable of controlling ourselves. On the other hand, love, hugs or saying “I love you” are positive emotions that we also silence. Either because of fears that we carry from our earliest childhood, or because of that feeling of shame, sometimes so useless, that haunts us everywhere.
However, doing this is going against our nature. We are emotional beings. As much as we wish not to feel, as much as we silence our emotions, they are going to be there. You can try as hard as you want to be quiet, but sooner or later your body will react. Those tears, those words that you contain will surface in some way without you being able to do anything to prevent it.
You are using your body as a container into which you pour everything that you feel, but that you refuse to express. Suddenly, you are not able to explain why you have so much physical discomfort, why depression and anxiety have made an appearance or why insomnia and dissatisfaction are beginning to extinguish the illusion and the desire to do things that you previously had . Your body begins to alert you that something is wrong.
A good way to put both our positive and negative feelings in order is to write. Doing so gives us pleasure, a kind of liberation. But beware! Do not stay at this and continue with the motto of silencing emotions. Putting your anger or your affection on paper will never replace the very action of verbalizing it: the warmth of a blank page is never the same as human warmth.
On the other hand, taking charge of the emotions and feelings of others can increase your own emotional charge. You already have enough with yours, do not look to hoard more. Stop constantly living in that need to say, but with the thought of being silent. You will not feel free, but condemned.
In your attempt to take control of your emotions, you end up losing control. They rule, they will come out one way or another. Silencing our emotions is not natural or beneficial for our health. Remember that “he who feels wins, even if he loses.”
Images courtesy of Kristin Vestgard
