Stupid, painful emotions — when it hurts to feel

Our natural instinct is to obscure painful feelings. We often mask one emotion with another depending on our personality. Some may lash out in anger. Others may respond in disgust. Some may become engulfed in shame.

As Brené Brown explains, this inner struggle can easily spill over, negatively impacting not just us but also those around us.

“There are too many people today who instead of feeling hurt are acting out their hurt; instead of acknowledging pain, they’re inflicting pain on others. Rather than risking feeling disappointed, they’re choosing to live disappointed.” — Brené Brown, Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution

The cure? It starts with emotional honesty.

We might not know exactly what we’re feeling. That’s okay. The point is to acknowledge that what we’re feeling sucks and we’d rather not feel it. From there we can take time to figure out what the emotions are and what’s causing them.

It takes courage to own our emotions. We become a little braver each time we wade through the discomfort of feeling our feelings.