The Set Up

                                                                 

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We come into this wild and woolly world a screaming squalling bloody mess. We kick and flail and the very first sound we hear is shhh, hush now. Could it be our Mother's love comforting us in a moment of need? Or is she trying to quiet us so we don't raise the attention of those that cower in the face of pure human existence ?

As humans we are built with emotions hardwired into every cell of our bodies. Throughout our existence we are told not to embrace them, not to express them. We are taught that stoic, quiet people are higher evolved because they have complete control over their heartfelt reactions.
 Whenever I encounter someone stoic and quiet I'm suspicious. How can someone push through our unnatural lives every second and not react to a feeling or worse express something? These Pius persons are the ones in my life who drive automobiles with the highest level of incompetency. They are the ones who expect the rest of us to tolerate their horrible children in public. They're the ones who ignore that you're waiting behind them in line and pull up a chair to visit with the cashier. They give you a fake smile and think that running in a pink shirt will somehow exonerate them from their sins. Sorry, I'm not buying any of it.

We have en epidemic of Mental Illness ravaging our population. When your Therapist gets to the bottom they find that you have no coping skills, that your parents were emotionally unavailable and that you have never learned how to express a single feeling without worrying about how someone else will react. When we hold everything in we become depressed (Depression is one of our nation's top killers). They'll suggest an anger management class, ok so you'll go into a controlled environment and let it all out, beating on pillows and shouting and flailing, just like you should have been doing all along. We are taught emotions must be controlled, ignored, use our words...
People who openly express their emotions make main stream humans uncomfortable, like wearing a wool sweater in summer, thus we are labeled as crazy. I remember some years ago a famous American Athlete cheated on his perfectly pious Christian wife. When she found out she forgave him and instead of allowing herself to grieve, to be angry, to feel all the raw emotion of a woman betrayed, she ignored all of her feelings and prayed for other people and the media ate it up like Jesus himself had walked onto the talk show stage.
I pray everyday for everyone and everything. I pray while clutching my Mother Theresa and Mother Mary medallions, I pray sometimes throughout an entire day. I pray for patience, I pray for light, love and blessings to surround all the world and thank the universe for the gift of emotions as I beg forgiveness for expressing them.

                                                   

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Even Buddha says let go, but he doesn't tell us how to let go ...way to go guru.
 I meditate and practice Yoga everyday but it doesn't make an emotional crisis disappear.
 So here in lies the quandary. We now know that hanging on to emotional baggage is not only unhealthy, but can actually be deadly. This is not opinion it is absolute fact, so why is it so unacceptable to express how we feel and allow ourselves to be human? Why does the human race keep trying to be something other than human? I think of two things. The first is our egos. We want to be as God like as possible so we play and pretend we're not  human, that we're emotionless. Being emotionless makes us feel superior and that in turns feeds the ego machine.
The second is social pressure. We must be perfect, we must at all times appear to be a magazine layout, hell it's not even cool to work out unless you're wearing designer outfits. I noticed it's becoming more and more popular to turn our vehicles into happy places too with flowers and cute little stuffies and window clings advertising the number of people in your family ( pets included ) and of course all the sickening praise for your kids because they reached an honored status laid out in a bumper sticker.
I was an honor student three years running and third in my class. My parents didn't take credit for it, in fact I don't think they even knew. Your child should always be loved completely and unconditionally but should not be exalted to rock star status at the ripe old age of 8.  We put all this pressure on our children as we tell them to just smile for the camera.

"Use your words". I hear this expression more and more and even though it's a good thing it's not going to make our feelings feel better or go away, although it has been proven that people who use profanity are more honest and mentally healthy than those who don't. I grew up in a house where swearing was spoken like a second language. I have a sister who has never picked up on a single social queue in her life and some people think she's crazy and others think she is just being honest. When I'm out and about with her I go through a torrent of feelings from wanting to crawl under a table to laughing uproariously.

We need to express our emotions or we will implode. I understand about things like time and place and composure. We confuse manners and decorum with feelings. I may be crazy but I'm not insane.
 I just think that we have set ourselves up for failure and certain destruction because we keep trying to improve on perfection. We are perfect as we are. We have to learn complete and unconditional acceptance of ourselves and our universe as it is in this moment and that is all we need to do. Good, bad, painful or sad, beautiful and sensual, angry or peaceful just accept all that is and stop setting ourselves up for failure at being human.