We are often being told that we should be happy and think positive all the time and crying is a sign of weakness. The person who shows their emotions are weak, mentally unstable and labels them by so many words.
But, the question is “Is showing emotions the sign of weakness?” and the answer is - it depends on how you handle and react towards it. If your emotions are not hurting anybody or yourself, then it is fine but if it does, if it ruins your or any other person’s day, then it’s not a good thing.
Expressing your emotions is a sign of strength but expressing it in a way that harms anybody is not only stupid but a malpractice behavior.
No matter how old you are or what you’ve been going/gone through, showing emotions is okay (unless it makes you feel worthless).
Let’s begin to understand what emotions are.
Knowing Emotions-- Not As Same As Our Moods Our emotions are different from moods but they are interrelated. When we are in a particular mood, we feel or behave in a certain way. It is not necessarily a result of some situation or anything. For example, when we are in a good mood, we will order an ice cream or when our mood is sad, we will not talk to anyone. Sometimes, we don’t have a mood to do anything but it doesn’t mean that our emotions are that way. Our emotions are the result of something that happened, which disturbs or changes our mood. For example, a car accident happened in front of you and you feel scared.
- Tons Of Emotions There are countless emotions that we feel that we cannot categorize. We have different types of emotions that can affect our perception, behavior, thought process, etc.
- Subjective In Nature We all have different types of emotions regardless of our culture or the way we are brought up but how we feel or what produces these emotions is subjective. For example, you fell, you felt pain but the person in front of you might not be in pain, hence it differs from the person who experiences it.
- Beneficial Our emotions make us learn so many things. It helps us to understand the situation and to behave accordingly. It motivates us to keep doing things that make us happy, fulfilled and to stop which doesn’t make us feel that way. When you lie to your parents, you might feel ashamed and it makes you realize that you shouldn’t have done that.
There are numerous reasons why we are emotional & a few of them are as follows:
- WHEN THINGS ARE BEYOND OUR CONTROL We become highly sensitive when things go the way we least expected. When we feel that we cannot fix something, but that’s the truth of life, we cannot control everything but we can always control the way we deal with it.
- NOT UNDERSTANDING OUR EMOTIONS ENOUGH When we don’t know what and how we are feeling, we keep the thing aside and don’t focus on ourselves. Bottling up the emotions, not paying attention to our thoughts, feelings end up making us feel highly emotional and overwhelmed.
- ENVIRONMENT The way we have been brought up, the kind of support we have, our beliefs, culture, peer groups also affect our emotional equilibrium. If as a child our wishes/needs weren’t fulfilled and there are things we cannot share with anybody, our emotions overpower us and we become emotional.
- TRUST ISSUES When someone betrays us and breaks our trust and promises, we become incapable of trusting someone else that makes us feel alone, left out and we have the fear of acceptance. Such kinds of issues also play an important role in how we deal with our emotions.
- LACK OF SLEEP When we don’t sleep peacefully, we feel tired and our minds cannot focus on what we are doing. We pay less attention and are always distracted which ends up ruining our entire day. We cannot be able to process whatever is happening and fail to acknowledge our emotions that develop because of our bad days. Therefore, try to sleep without consuming the net and relax your soul and the body.
- OTHER’S JUDGMENTS When we care a lot about what people think about us or we think about their judgments and argument, we feel that we aren’t valuable. We care so much about the people that we don’t care about ourselves enough. We become insecure about how we are/behave that we lose control over our emotions and become aggressive, sensitive, etc.
- GRIEF When we have lost somebody that we deeply care for, loved more, who was there with us no matter what, we cannot overcome such a loss. We avoid meeting-greeting people, we prefer staying away from everyone and feel very sad and guilty of whatever happened. When we lose contact with our close ones, we cannot process this, we cannot accept that our lives have been changed that takes a toll on our thoughts and feelings.
- GENETICS Many studies have shown that our emotions are influenced by genetics. If the family has gone through a loss that they were incapable of overcoming, chances are that it will also be inherited in their future generations. For example, if your father is an emotional person or he loses his temper easily, chances are that you also process the same feeling.
It’s a human thing to have emotions, to cry over uncontrollable things, to feel insecure, hurt, pain, etc but we should know how to not let those emotions overpower us and make us run such kind of life.
An emotionally intelligent person is someone who acknowledges their feelings, tries to understand why they are feeling that way, and does not let it ruin anyone’s life. They also care about someone else’s emotions and don't hurt anyone.
If you are feeling a lot of things, then don’t just sit and let the moment pass, think about your past, the situations that are making you feel this way, and come up with the solution to not let these things happen again. If you feel that nobody understands you, then take a step and learn to understand yourself. Make mistakes, cry over them but make sure to accept and learn from them.
The bottom line is, don’t just sit and do nothing. Work on your thoughts, actions, or call if you simply want to vent but make sure to not cry over such things again.
