Restraints on Emotional Release
Society has a way of keeping us from expressing ourselves fully. How ve release pent-up feelings reveals something of our personality and life-style. Sports and hobbies, .even routine office, factmy, or housebold chores help release feelings. Some people can express themselves through reading or writing or even by booing officials at gamps.
Our verbal criticisms of others may be as much a release of our feelings as a means of letting the other person know our evaluations.
Emotional suppression can both help and harm us. Suppressing anger in an intellectual argument may be beneficial on occasion, but suppressing all feelings all the time can lead to difficulties of adjustment. Persons who do not allow themselves to feel things deeply are plagued by a sterile dullness in their lives. They often wonder why others seem to be having more fun. On the other hand, becoming emotionally involved with people, causes, organizations, or even spectator sports calls for keeping our involvement within tolerable limits. Through many harmless releases of energy, we become to some degree immunized to frustration and conflict. If emotion is properly channeled, we gradually learn to share in other peoples moods and to join in the group emotions of listening to music, experiencing the visual arts, and sharing religious expression.
