Suppressing Your Emotions May Do More Harm Than You Think

How do you feel today? Most people will simply answer ‟fine’’ without pausing for even a second to think before they reply. Many people operate on emotional autopilot, trying to ignore the feelings because our inner lives are a risky place to explore. The irony, though, is that when we ignore our feelings or suppress them, they only become stronger.

A few months ago, I was contacted by a client who has a brilliant career, a wonderful family…but internally she was suffering. As she shared with me, since her childhood, she became a real master of bottling her emotions. When she was a child, she often heard from her parents' phrases like, ‟Get over it’’ and ‟Don’t be so sensitive.’’

When she became a doctor, her high-stressed demanding job even reinforced the emotional suppression. In her everyday life, she pushed her emotions to the side, suppressed the unwanted feelings (especially those that were a sign of weakness or heavy to cope with), and she lost herself in the busyness of caring for others and reaching for professional success.

But as years passed, all the unexpressed emotions started to create a downstream effect on her body, including sleep problems, neck pain, and anxiety. Her body sent her clear signs that it was time for a change.

We started to work together on how to regulate and express her emotions more effectively. Our coaching sessions also helped her to enlarge her emotional vocabulary. And we created her personal emotional self-care toolbox to help her cope with challenging emotions she might experience in her everyday life.

As studies have shown, suppressing emotions endangers our health and well-being, both physically and psychologically. Suppression doesn’t make the emotion go away - it just stays inside you, causing more pain. No matter how smart you are, your emotions will have an influence - positive or negative - on your rational thought processes.

Do you also have the tendency to suppress your emotions but wish to make a change and learn how to express them with skill?

Let’s schedule a friendly online conversation. Book your online, 20-minute FREE session by CLICKING HERE.