As humans, we have been blessed with the gift of consciousness, though it can also be a curse. Being conscious is all about being aware of everything that surrounds us.
This awareness leads to evaluation of everyday occurrences. That’s where emotions stem from, according to the Appraisal theory. According to this theory, emotions are fluid and ever-changing as our appraisals change over time.
Expressing our emotions is always a positive and liberating experience even if the said emotions are negative—such as anger or sorrow. However, some people prefer to just hold it in and march on, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Why People Hold Emotions In
The act of holding in emotions can be caused by various reasons and is seldom the person’s own mistake.
Some people suffer from animotophobia, which is the phobia of expressing feelings or the fear of emotions. This constitutes fear of both positive and negative emotions. However, hypnosis and behavioral therapy can help treat this phobia.
On the other hand, most of us are raised in environments where keeping a lid on feelings and emotions is the norm. This means that expressing emotions—negative or positive—is considered socially undesirable.
Some people consider not expressing emotions as a sign of good manners while in some cases, it borders on rigidity or unnatural restraint. Nevertheless, suppressing your emotions perpetually can lead to bitterness and even serious health issues.
Holding In Emotions Is Not Good For Your Health
Many of us have been suppressing our emotions for so long that we’ve forgotten how to express feelings. Holding in emotions leads to bitterness which is a passive expression of built-up emotional energy.
Suppressed emotions such as anger and resentment—even if justified—can turn into corrosive bitterness.
Mental health experts agree that acknowledging emotions—at least the negative ones—and expressing them from time to time is an integral part of mental health.
In fact, the effects of holding in or suppressing emotions go beyond our mental health. A study by the University of Rochester found that holding in emotions can also increase risks of heart attack and certain types of cancer.
Health risks are alleviated when people don’t have a way of expressing their feelings or acting upon them. Learning how to overcome your fear of expressing feelings can go a long way toward improving your emotional well-being.
In fact, expressing emotions isn’t just about letting out your anger and frustration. Expressing positive emotions can also lead to a healthier lifestyle, concluded a Harvard study.
Regardless of emotions being positive or negative, they don’t arise in a vacuum. Emotional well-being relies on a person’s ability to foster and maintain a conducive environment where the needs of our body, mind, and soul are nourished.
While some of it may be out of our control, a great deal of our emotional well-being is in our control and can benefit from some care. One great way to deal with the phobia of expressing your feelings, as mentioned before, is hypnotherapy.
Rekha Shrivastava is a certified hypnotist and a rehabilitation counselor based in Rochester, with vast qualifications and experience of over 20 years in the field of mental health services. Her work has proven to be effective in treating anxiety, depression, weight loss, PTSD, and smoking cessation.
Rekha offers in-person sessions for people in Rochester, NY but you can also get an online session on Skype or FaceTime. If you need to learn more about how we can help you out, get a free consultation today!
Sources:
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/timi-gustafson/bottling-up-negative-emotions_b_5056433.html
http://www.informationr.net/ir/20-1/paper662.html#.WytSovW-ncs
http://phobia.wikia.com/wiki/Animotophobia
https://www.jpsychores.com/article/S0022-3999%2813%2900303-6/abstract
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