He wanted to know why I did it. He wanted to know why I encouraged her to express herself openly and freely. He wanted to know why I supported her in honoring her emotions. Couldn’t I understand that when she expressed herself, it created unsettled energy for other people? Couldn’t I understand that when she expressed herself that it resulted in tough conversations between other people? Why would I encourage that?
My answer could have been as simple as “Because that is who I am”. However, I elaborated on it because I felt he deserved to see the bigger picture.
I will forever encourage people to express themselves openly and freely. No emotion is bad. No emotion is wrong. No emotion should be stuffed down into your body, mind, heart and soul to fester and stew. In holding onto emotions and trying desperately to deny them, we deny who we are and how we feel, we deny ourselves. In stuffing our emotions down, for fear of what others will think or how others will respond, we invite shame and guilt that also get internalized and stuffed into our being to slowly rot within us, creating dis-ease in our being. The energy of the internalized emotion is already there and felt, regardless of if the emotion is given words and a voice. The people who this emotion and conversation impacted were already being impacted but there was no opportunity to have open conversation and dialogue about it. When people give their emotions a voice, they also give the people in their reality an opportunity to process the energy and work through whatever their own emotions are. In the denial of emotions, we limit and prevent the healing that can come with them.
That is the long answer. The short answer is “because that is who I am”.
My approach to life does not need to resonate with you. I won’t ask you to adopt it. I won’t even ask you to respect it, but I also won’t change this about who I am.
