A friend complained that she wasn't feeling much in the way of gratitude. It is totally understandable when I am tired, irritated, afraid, sad, to feel that the world is terrible. Sometimes, I feel I could design a much better world than the one I am in. I wrote that I have a theory that women experience emotions more openly and fully than men. Males are taught as well as being wired to suppress, cast under the rug, strong fears and many other negative emotions.
I am not sure that women feel emotions more deeply or more suddenly than men but it seems to be that women accept their own emotions more willingly. Therapists often advise that powerful negative emotions are best processed by facing them and experiencing them, instead of denying them or running from them. I suspect that getting into a funk, feeling down, knowing that one is feeling negative may be a shorter, better path toward getting back to happiness.
Many men are convinced that they should feel nothing but bravery. Some are so trained that when they are in the grip of a strong emotion, they don't even know it. I wonder if women live longer than men, on average, because they lead richer lives of strong emotions, both positive and negative. Common advice is that repression keeps the negative around to hound and re-hound.
It can be fun to identify the emotion, realize I am afraid or repulsed or nervous or whatever, and having named the feeling, tell myself to get in deeper. I am afraid of the bogeyman. Ok, I bet that particular bogeyman is extra demonic and has a hankering for my brain. I bet he is going to munch my brain slowly and painfully. It only takes a second or two, before I realize I am silly. I am not in danger of having my brain munched. The situation was rather exciting there for a moment but it is over now. Bye, Boogie See you later.
