Emotions are for Real, ya know, like Emoticons

Just wanted to say a word (or several) about emotions today. I feel like we are taught, or at least many of us, from a very young age to stuff those things in. Emotions are relegated to a box, either positive (acceptable), or negative (unacceptable).

I’m here today to stand up for being ticked off, sad, frustrated or flustered.

It’s not about the emotions, after all, it’s about what you do with them. I used to label and stuff, label and stuff… it’s exhausting. I’m gonna call some of you out and say that some of my own friends are longtime stuffers. Stop it. Stop feeling guilty (another feeling!) about having emotions. We were created with them, weren’t we? Then the key must be knowing what to do with them.

For many years of my life I would get migraine headaches when I was upset because I was trying so hard to keep everything in and not cry or scream or let anyone know I was having a (Heaven Forbid!) negative emotion. Somewhere in my thirties I realized this and determined that if I needed to cry I was gonna cry, dad-gummit, consequences be damned. Oh, it was so freeing. To be at a funeral or watching a sad commercial on TV (ya never know with me) and just let the tears flow when they wanted to, well, that was one of the most liberating experiences of my life. The migraines stopped.

I don’t think it’s cool, necessarily, to throw yourself down and have a fit worthy of a three-year-old, but hey, maybe, (but maybe not in public). Do what ya gotta do though, let those puppies out. Like anything caged up and yearning to be free, emotions will be very unhappy in their box and will get back at you by way of tension headaches, migraines, ulcers, bitterness, just all sorts of fun things.

You want to experience personal growth? Experience your emojis. Don’t just post them, live them.

There are those in my life that I’ve come in contact with that seem to think (especially if you have a spiritual life and believe in a higher power) that one must be ALWAYS SUNNY (like Philadelphia??) always smiling and laughing and upbeat.  (Obviously I’m not very on board with that.)

Taking physicality out of the equation, there are three things I’ve always been called throughout my whole life, long as I can remember. I’ve come to terms with them and realize they are very true.

I am weird. (Yes, different, goofy, free-spirited, march to the beat of a different drum, yada-yada.)

I am REAL. (I do not put on airs-whatever that means) and what you see is what you get. I don’t get along well with people who are otherwise tempered. If you’re wearing a mask, keep on stepping, I don’t have time for that.

And 3rd, I am intense. Don’t let my sometimes sloth-like demeanor fool you, this mind is going 1,000 miles a second all the time. It never shuts down, never closes for inventory, doors always open, no cover charge any time. I haven’t slept (naturally) in…. how many years? Maybe 35? I always have to take something, Benedryl, or Something to aid me in sleeping because if not my mind never shuts off and I never sleep and I’m a tired cranky-pants all the time.

So, in conclusion, I’m Really Intensely weird. Or something.

Anyway, don’t you think they should have a REAL emoticon???

Feel all the feels, peeps. It’ll do ya good.