It’s OK to get angry.
Not a message you hear very often, particularly at work.
But just imagine a life without emotions.
I don’t know about you, but back in the days when I was deep in the corporate rat race I was fortunate (?) enough to be sent on any number of courses to help me learn how to suppress my emotions. This was supposed to lead me to a state of inner calm that could never be shaken, no matter how stressful things got or how much I yearned to fight the system.
Fortunately it didn’t work. Why do I say fortunately? Because emotions are such an essential part of life.
Just ask anyone who is taking medication, to reduce their emotions. The drugs numb out the good emotions, along with the less desirable ones, and people often describe it as existing, rather than living.
I have seen that first-hand, with people I love.
Then there’s the so-called “spiritual bypass”, which works in a similar way to mood-suppressing drugs. You go around pretending that you’re not really feeling angry, scared, guilty or any other so-called “negative” emotion. But really you’re faking it. And that’s a recipe for long-term unhappiness and dis-ease.
So why are we so obsessive about getting rid of emotions?
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