To me, emotional reactions are the truest form of ourselves. The unfiltered raw, uninhibited version of us, you, me, our inner baby (communicating and just being).
We learn to hide them, to disguise them, to justify them away. We learn we shouldn’t feel a certain way or should feel a certain way. We learn what feelings and emotions are appropriate and which ones aren’t. And we end up confused, battling ourselves, beating ourselves for feeling how we feel, trying to reason ourselves out of it, judging ourselves, denying ourselves.
But there are 2 types of lying. Lying to the outer world and lying to ourselves. While we sometimes have to hide our emotions to the world if they would create unwanted negative outcomes for others or us (making people panic in a professional setting, making someone we love feel bad, feel unwanted, making ourselves look bad in the public eye, etc), lying to ourselves about how we feel is never ok and brings a bad outcome down the way. We owe it to ourselves and our peace of mind to be honest with ourselves about how we truly feel. That Truth may be ugly, may be disappointing, it may be momentary or permanent, it may lead to consequences and big decisions/changes, or it may just lead to some time with ourselves eating cookies and ice cream next to a box of tissues playing the same sad song over and over again and then go about our life the same. We may choose to disclose it to no one and keep it secret, or we may choose to share it with a trusted ear, now, or after many years. Or make it public.
Regardless of any of that, it remains that we must face it ourselves.
