Public personas keep us from living what we feel.
Please discuss. How does this play out in life?
I’ll start us out. We all have one, a face we present to the public. Sometimes it reflects our interior feelings and sometimes it doesn’t. The facade can be useful, as when we remain calm and centered in an emergency or refrain from telling our boss to go to hell. It can also be helpful when we are acting as if, temporarily bolstering ourselves with assumed qualities until we can develop our emotional muscle. On an ongoing daily basis, however, it can be problematic, causing us to be inauthentic and disconnected from our feelings. The trick is in balance, learning when it is functional and healthy to let it all hang out in the moment and when we choose our timing in expressing difficult feelings.
Today’s message reminds me to make time in my life for all my feelings, comfortable or not. If I stuff my uncomfortable emotions, they will remain waiting for acknowledgment in my interior space; they won’t go away and will fester. Dealt with respectfully, kindly, and in a matter of fact way, they can express and be resolved. When I note troubling feelings arising, I can choose my timing to sort through them. I will want to deal with them in the near future, or they may choose the timing for me in an undesired way. Life is simpler and easier when I allow my feelings as much in the moment as is practical.
How about you? How do you deal with difficult emotions? Are you a stuffer or a blurter, or somewhere in between?