Reveal and deal with all emotions – positive and negative – for emotional stability and health
As humans, we have categorized emotions and feelings into two extreme categories: bad/negative and good/positive. Ultimately, neither should be hidden. Hiding emotions affects your emotional and physical wellbeing, and thus your actions, according to education and social activist Reem Bakheet.
Negative emotions usually comprise the likes of anger, sadness, jealousy, disgust and fear – these are emotions we generally don’t like to reveal, and suppress. Positive include happiness, joy, amazement, excitement – these are ‘good’ emotions and we happily channel these.
When an individual suppresses an emotion, he or she doesn’t allow the world to know how they really feel, and ironically, they don’t even allow themselves to know how they really feel.
If you hide your fear, sadness or jealousy and don’t talk about it, it will affect your emotional wellbeing and mental health. If you are upset, say it out loud. Talk about it. Hear yourself say it. When you say it, you will accept it. When you accept it, you will take the right action and deal with it.
When we don’t deal with our emotions and suppress them, only bad news follows – unhealthy and unbalanced actions will occur. In order to deal with a problem, you need to address and accept it.
Ask yourself this: when you are diagnosed with a physical problem such as a fever or arm fracture, what do you do? You accept it, go see a physician and deal with the issue. Our mental health needs the same care and attention, possibly even more. Neither can be ignored – physical or mental health.
Nothing is bad – sadness is not a bad thing and neither is fear. Every single one of us feels these emotions as human beings – it’s innate.
We have to acknowledge our feelings, emotions and problems and take action accordingly – whichever deems fit and right. Pushing emotions away is not the answer. Embracing them is.
I feel sad too, and angry. But when I do, I need to ask myself why. Once I know the reason, I will resolve the issue and whatever I am going through. We don’t need to face internal struggles every day because of our emotions.
Effectively dealing with emotions is an integral task we need to teach our children as well. We have to encourage them to talk about how they feel without the fear of being judged. We have to do this for the greater good – ensuring our children’s mental health, wellness and stability.