Why It's Vital to Identify, Process, and Express Your Emotions

"The cure for the pain is in the pain” —Rumi

Some of you may think this post title is silly, as it's an obvious truth (duh!), while others may disagree entirely with its premise. I think a lot more of us, though, can agree on the fact that our world needs more emotional intelligence as it becomes increasingly technological and siloed.

Potentially today more than ever, many people get stuck from not identifying and processing their emotions. I'd argue this is the key reason we get stuck most of the time (I wouldn't say all the time because in some contexts or situations it can be healthy to block out emotion). The simplest way I make sense of the root problem is that we often grow up in environments where it wasn't safe to feel, process, and express what we were feeling. In other words: we are conditioned to tune out emotion. We also live in an emotionally phobic society; it often feels like our culture disregards and........

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