Does the phrase “stuffing your emotions” resonate with how you handle your feelings and emotions? In case you aren’t familiar with this phrase, stuffing your emotions refers to burying hurt feelings down only for them to resurface later on as unresolved pain that still needs to be felt and heard. When you stuff your emotions, you will have to deal with many unintended consequences down the line. If you learn how to avoid stuffing your feelings, it will help you build strong relationships, enjoy better mental health, let you healthily deal with your emotions, and you will feel better without repressed feelings weighing you down.
Why We Stuff Our Emotions
Stuffing our emotions isn’t a healthy way to deal with our emotions, but it is a pattern that many of us fall into regardless. There can be many reasons a person can stuff their emotions, and usually, it is a combination of several factors.
- Conflict avoidance – Someone can be afraid of bringing up their issues because they don’t want it to lead to a fight, or they wish to be perceived like they are easygoing and can’t be bothered.
- Fear of rejection – Someone may be afraid of how others will think of them if they share how they truly feel and may also have “people-pleasing” tendencies.
- A belief that others won’t listen – Maybe a person has learned this behavior because when they have gone to others in the past, they have never before been met with listening, empathy, and validation.
- Low self-esteem – A person may believe that they don’t deserve to have a voice or lack the confidence to express their emotions.
The Solution to Not Stuffing Anymore
The solution to stop stuffing your emotions is a simple one, but it can take time for you to grow comfortable doing it. To stop stuffing, you must learn how to properly express or communicate your feelings and emotions free of any fear of judgment, rejection, or ridicule. To begin doing this, start communicating the smaller things on your mind that doesn’t bring out as much fear as some of the bigger things on your mind do. By slowly learning how to speak what’s on your mind and growing in confidence doing so, you can work your way up to talking about the more serious things.
Learning healthy ways of expressing your feelings and emotions is an important step in improving your emotional health. Paying conscious attention not to stuff our emotions when they arise and instead learn how to properly communicate or address them will prevent them from resurfacing in even more damaging ways later on. If you or someone you know is struggling to get sober or with a mental health illness, contact us at Avalon Malibu. Avalon Malibu is one of the only residential treatment centers in California that treats both mental health disorders and substance use addiction. At Avalon, we offer a continuum of high-quality, integrated care that meets the many needs of our patients and helps them get back to living a full life with personal freedom. Call us at (844) 857-5992 today.
