Emotional Suppression: What Suppressing Emotions Can Do to Your Wellbeing

Emotional suppression is a common coping strategy that many people use to avoid unpleasant or negative feelings. However, suppressing emotions can have harmful consequences for your mental and physical health, as well as your relationships.

Emotions are natural and normal parts of being human. They help us communicate, connect, and deal with life’s challenges. But sometimes, our emotions can feel overwhelming or inappropriate for a situation. In those cases, we might try to hide or ignore what we’re feeling.

What is emotional suppression?

Suppressing your emotions is the act of choosing not to acknowledge, express, or act on your emotions. It is different from emotional regulation, which is the ability to manage your emotions in a healthy and adaptive way. It is a form of emotional avoidance. It means avoiding or escaping from situations that trigger unwanted emotions.

In the short term, suppressing emotions might seem like a good idea. We might want to avoid conflict or discomfort. But research shows that it can have negative effects on our mental health and well-being in the long run.

People may suppress emotions for various reasons, such as:

• Fear of being judged, rejected, or criticized by others
• Fear of losing control or being overwhelmed by emotions
• Fear of hurting others or damaging relationships
• Belief that emotions are irrational, weak, or inappropriate
• Lack of emotional awareness or skills to cope with emotions
• Cultural or social norms that discourage emotional expression

Supressing Emotions can however have negative consequences on you and those around you.

• You lose touch with your true feelings and needs. It becomes hard to show your authentic self to others. This can lead to low self-esteem, poor self-image, and reduced self-confidence. — You feel more stressed and anxious. Suppressing emotions can build up tension inside you. This can cause physical symptoms such as headaches, muscle pain, fatigue, trouble sleeping, and digestive problems.
• It can also make stress, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) worse.
• Your memory and thinking skills suffer. keeping in your emotions can make it harder to process and remember information.
• It can also impair decision-making and problem-solving abilities. This can affect your performance at school, work, and in your personal life.
• Your relationships suffer and you may feel isolated. Suppressing emotions can make you seem cold or distant to others. This makes it harder to have healthy relationships. It can also make you feel lonely, misunderstood, or rejected. This increases your risk of being isolated and feeling lonely.
• You’re less happy and satisfied with life. Regression stops you from feeling positive emotions. These include joy, gratitude, love, and excitement. These emotions are important for your happiness and well-being. It also makes it harder for you to adapt to life’s challenges and changes.

How to Stop Suppressing Emotions and Start Expressing Them in Healthy Ways

Emotions are natural and normal human experiences that need to be expressed in order to be processed and released. If you find yourself suppressing your emotions a lot, it might be time to change your approach.

Here are some tips to help with emotional suppression and start expressing them in healthy ways:

• Recognise your emotions: The first step is to identify what you’re feeling and why. You can use a journal, an app that tracks your mood, or a list of emotion words to help you name your emotions. This will help you understand why you’re feeling them.
• Accept your emotions: The next step is to accept your emotions without judging or criticizing yourself. You can use positive statements, mindfulness techniques, or self-compassion practices. They help you acknowledge that your emotions are valid and normal responses to your experiences.
• Talking to someone you trust, such as a friend, family member, therapist, or counsellor. Sharing your feelings can help you feel understood, supported, and validated.
• Writing your emotions down in a journal, a letter, a poem, or a story. Writing can help you clarify your thoughts, feelings, and needs, as well as release pent-up emotions.
• Drawing, painting, sculpting, or creating any other form of art that expresses your emotions. Art can help you channel your emotions into something tangible and meaningful.
• Singing, playing an instrument, listening to music, or composing a song that reflects your emotions. Music can help you express and regulate your emotions, as well as soothe and uplift your mood.
• Dancing, running, yoga, martial arts, or any other form of physical activity that allows you to move your body and release tension. Physical activity can help you cope with stress, improve your health, and boost your self-esteem.
• Crying when you feel sad, hurt, angry, or overwhelmed. Crying can help you release emotional pain and toxins from your body, as well as relieve stress and calm your nervous system.

Choose how to express your emotions. Then, decide how you want to express your emotions in a way that’s appropriate and respectful to yourself and others. You can use words, body language, creative outlets, or physical activities to help you express your emotions in a healthy and cathartic way.

Get support: Finally, reach out to others who can understand and support you. They can validate your emotions and offer guidance or help. You can talk to your friends, family, mentors, counsellors, therapists, or support groups. They can help you handle your emotions and overcome emotional suppression and the challenges you face.

By following these steps, you can stop suppressing emotions and start expressing them in healthy ways. This will improve your mental health and well-being.

I hope this helps you to better understand the impact of supressing emotions. Comment your thoughts or feelings below, and if you want advice or to book a coaching session Click Here or use the contact details below.

I look forward to hearing from you, until then take care of yourself and keep an eye out for my next post :)