Feelings Are Not Weakness

Summary

The article emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and experiencing emotions as a fundamental aspect of personal growth and self-awareness.

Abstract

The article "Feelings Are Not Weakness" posits that emotions, whether positive or negative, are essential to our learning process. It suggests that our emotional responses are crucial in determining when to listen to our hearts or our minds, and they teach us trust and resilience. The author encourages readers to embrace their feelings, whether it's taking a day off to rest and recharge or working out to regain calmness. The piece also criticizes the societal norm of suppressing emotions and highlights the significance of processing feelings to move forward. It encourages a supportive approach to ourselves and others when dealing with emotional challenges, reinforcing the idea that feeling emotions is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Opinions

Emotions should not be hidden but rather felt and acknowledged to understand ourselves better.
It is important to trust our emotional responses to learn about our needs and grow personally.
Embracing emotions, whether through rest, exercise, or other means, is a healthy way to manage our mental state and is not a sign of weakness.
Societal expectations often discourage the expression of feelings, particularly with phrases like "It's okay, don't cry," which can be harmful.
Accepting and processing emotions is key to overcoming difficult experiences and achieving personal growth.
Allowing oneself to fully experience overwhelming emotions can be therapeutic and lead to a deeper understanding of one's emotional landscape.

It’s how we learn when to follow our head and went to follow our heart

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Feelings are meant to be felt. Whether they are good or bad, mild or intense, manageable or absolutely overwhelming, they are meant to be felt. Our emotions and how we react to things are ways we learn how to trust and who to trust. It’s how we learn when to follow our head and went to follow our heart. It’s how we learn how to take things with a grain of salt.

Sometimes we learn that the choices we have made were not the best choices for us. Other times we learn that we put our faith in the right people or gave our heart to the right person. The point is, feeling those emotions is important.

If you need to have a day where you sit on the couch in pajamas, eat ice cream, and watch something and you’ve seen so many times that you numb to it, go ahead. If you need to go out to the gym and work out until your body is able to be calm again, do it. If you need to close your eyes and take a nap and forget things for a few hours, that’s fine. Those things help us to get back to the head space we need to be in. It’s not showing weakness, it’s accepting our emotions.

When you see someone having a hard time, or know someone is staying home and taking time to themselves, or see someone breaking from their routine, recognize it for what it is. It is accepting emotion and allowing oneself to feel it in order to get past it. Don’t see it as a weakness, it is not. Don’t call them broken, they are not.

Allowing yourself to feel your emotions can be one of the most difficult things for a person, especially if life has taught them not to. Far too many people, men and women alike, are told to hide their feelings instead of feeling them. “It’s okay, don’t cry” is said far more than “It’s okay, I’m here for you.”

To become more in tune with our emotions, we need to accept them, not bury them. Allow yourself to feel your little joys and sorrows so that you can feel them and move forward. Think about what you are feeling and why, and you will be able to achieve much more personal growth than you would by trying to avoid your true emotional responses.

Sometimes the very best thing you can do is to allow yourself to focus on whatever emotion is overwhelming you, set an alarm for a few hours later, and let it wash you away so you can get it out of your system by truly feeling all that you need to feel. This will help you understand yourself better, in your mind and in your heart. If that emotion is giddiness or confusion or frustration, find your way to release it and feel it. If your emotion is sadness.. Go get the rocky road, a blanket, and the remote, and let yourself feel.