Dear America, Let’s Talk More

Dear America, 

Every single day we pass by hundreds of people with equally intricate lives as our own. Now, imagine that our planet is a large library and imagine if the people who live in the library are also books, could you imagine how many pages a person could be waiting to read to someone who would be willing to just sit and listen?  All it takes is four simple words, “How are you, today?”. This action costs nothing but is set at a priceless worth. 

I personally find it to be a life skill, to be able to effectively communicate and socially thrive in a population of people. We are literally individual hind-legged creatures living on a sphere of land and water in space. As humans, we forget that we live in a society where there are rules and norms that exist. We are creatures living amongst each other, it seems to me that we have been socially separated. It is so easy to get caught up in society and our own moving lives that we forget that we are socially reliant beings. We forget how important social contact impacts our lives. Not only is it fun to socialize but it also provides health benefits: mayoclinic.org/discussion. Socializing only better familiarizes people to their environment, make sure to take some time out of your day to get to know someone. You will come to see that these people who you haven’t taken time out of our day to interact with are not too far from who you are.

Do not be afraid to make new friends. Life is short, so you might as well live it not regretting what you did not speak of. Emotions and our mouths work hand in hand, we all carry emotion and we all carry a mouth. Unfortunately, we are not all exactly wired to be able to clearly present our emotions, this could be caused by past traumas, mental health difficulties, and the most unspoken of, society’s stigmas. The Stigma of Emotion wrote an article called “The Stigma of Emotion“, a section from it: “Showing emotion – particularly sadness — is seen as a sign of weakness and societal norms discourage expressing emotion.” I see this particularly with my friends and family members who are male. “Finally, many people are afraid of emotion and fear that once they finally express it, it will overwhelm them and that negative feeling will never go away.” This falls under  the stigma issue. I feel that through connection and mass communication, these stigmas will diminish. Dr. Jill Bolte, a brain scientist discovered “it only takes 90 seconds for an emotion to get triggered, and chemically processed through the body; any remaining emotional response is more our thought pattern than our emotions.” This proves our own humanity. We are mammals born  to react to our environment. Nature plays its role and it is evident through our own emotional reactions to moments that require them. I feel that if we start now and spread awareness on the critical reason why today’s society needs healthily communicative adults. If we get to a point of connection, expressing your feelings to a friend won’t be too far along from expressing your feelings to a cousin or a sibling.

As you walk your way around this library we call life, make sure to stop and read sometime. For America, let’s keep talking, a more communicative today, is a more connected tomorrow.