Dear America: It’s Okay to Express Your Feelings

Dear America, It’s okay to express your feelings,

It’s hard for individuals to have the guts to tell another person what they are going through, and their opinions on certain topics. Everyone’s feelings matter and no one should feel like they aren’t valid.

Many individuals constantly feel shut out and they tend to push down their emotions and feelings which leads to shutting out everyone around them. It’s important to express your feelings – the good and the difficult. Expressing feelings can help you to feel better about yourself and the situation.

The more you do this the easier it gets. When we fail to express our emotions, our brain can often go into a fight-or-flight state. This is a physical reaction to stress that sets off a ton of events throughout our bodies. It makes us feel anxious or depressed. When we loosen our emotions it helps us see problems in a new light, reduces stress, makes decision making and problem-solving easier, and can ease depression.

Negative emotions are painful to experience and acknowledge, so keeping them instead of expressing them is a means to escape them. People want to appear perfect to others and to themselves. So acknowledging their mistakes and failures and the feelings associated with them can be very hard. 

Many people allow others to affect their life and showing your vulnerability is one of the surest ways to establish deeper, more intimate relationships with others. It’s never good to think that exhibiting vulnerability shows weakness. Speaking up about a situation that you are in can go a long way. You can be more comfortable with the other person.

Plus, being able to express one’s emotions is associated with tons of positive outcomes, such as increased adjustment to stressors, greater life satisfaction, and increased psychological resilience. Allowing yourself to express your emotions means that everyone around you gets to know who you are and what you are like. It’s a way to identify who you are and it makes you stand out in a world of the same people everywhere you turn and go.

There are several ways we can express who we are through our daily lives like art, writing, music, language and way more than we think. Showing others around the world this technique and teaching them how to express their emotions can mean better relationships in businesses and life in general.

It’s always good to remember that you are in charge of managing your own emotions. Without expressing them and just hiding them you won’t be relieved from yourself and the mind. A large majority of studies have shown that negative emotions weaken the body, while positive emotions make us stronger, and prevent us from getting illness and disease. 

Emotions are part of the evolution of humans and are also what define and separate humans from the rest of the animals on this earth. Emotions are natural, so don’t struggle against them over again. Letting them allows you to try to relax. Find something else to occupy your mind like talking to someone, singing, meditating, or going for a walk.