Emotional Balance

Emotions are a critical part of human nature, but few people really understand the importance of feelings, much less how to deal with them in a constructive way. Most people have been taught to stuff their emotions with messages like “Don’t cry!” or “Don’t you dare be angry with me!” In fact, all of us have probably been told to suppress just about every emotion we experience at one time or another. We’ve probably even been told not to be happy with phrases like, “Wipe that stupid grin off your face,” or “This is not a laughing matter.”

The result of all this is that most of us are ashamed to show our feelings. We may have even suppressed some of those feelings so deeply that we’re in denial that we have them. None of this is healthy as we’ll explain in this issue of Sunshine Sharing. In it, we’ll explore the importance of emotions and tools we can use to create greater emotional balance and wellbeing.