Emotions

Expressing emotions has been on my mind a lot lately. Socially it seems only ok to be happy. But not too happy. Just enough happy that you smile at appropriate times and maybe even laugh here and there. Just, you know, don't laugh really loud in public. It's ok to talk about what you are grateful for, but not in a "braggy" sort of way, so watch out there. Be humble, but not naive. Stay within the socially acceptable boundaries of expression and you will fit right in on "fake-book". I realized people call it that for these reasons. You only show the best things and most don't show the other stuff. I can't actually be like that. I have to be honest. Not the way some people mean that, I can keep my mouth shut and be supportive but when something is going on in my life, I want to be real about it. However the response is interesting. Most people want to be supportive but the support comes in a "you shouldn't feel that way"  kind of way. I'm not sure many of us learned how to support someone in their sadness, anger, or grief without trying to "fix" it. (Sorry for all the quotations lol) I really REALLY enjoyed the movie Inside-Out. It touches the subject of how you can't have joy without sadness and you just need to be there. That it's OK to be sad! That's the big one. It's ok to feel. I think we bottle up emotions and don't express them and end up very unhappy. But if we are allowed to feel the feelings then we move through them and come out happy eventually. No one can be happy all the time. That's not what life is. We are meant to experience ups and downs and everything in between, so why not decide it's ok to express these things too? How many times have you heard or said "don't cry" in a nice way. It's meant to be nice, but it actually really isn't. I think it would be nicer to say "it's ok, go ahead and cry". Acknowledging feelings and that they are ok.... What a different world that would be. I hope I can teach our children to feel in a healthy way. Probably not easy to teach a subject I don't fully understand but I'll try. I think anger is the trickiest one. Well it's a work in progress.