Wish you could throw a temper tantrum?

How did we get so good at hiding our feelings?  Is it something we learned over time because certain displays of emotion are “socially unacceptable”? You could consider my household a science lab for emotional display right now, with a 2-month old, a 14-month old, a 3-year-old you can imagine…throw in a work-a-holic Dad and Mom still coming off the pregnancy-hormone wave, and the show is on! 

My youngest is in that happy, smiling, laughing, cooing stage that brings a tear to my eye every single time I look at his face.  It’s such a genuine display of happiness that you never ever want to forget it.  Next to him, the 14-month old is in an almost constant state of frustration because she can’t quite say everything she wants to just yet, but she wants to tell you so badly!  Which translates to… whining.  Add the 3-year-old’s dance between asserting herself and gaining your approval and its one big ball of fun.  But when you step back and look again, you know that their emotions are so raw, and so honest.  There is NO question what they are feeling in the moment. 



It may not be socially acceptable for a grown person to throw a tantrum, but you know what, it’s got to be healthier than stuffing our feelings and carrying them around with us forever.  Keeping our emotions bottled up inside causes a stress on the body that is simply not healthy. It is hard for us to understand the role stress plays on our health because we can’t see it in plain sight, and we often don’t give credit where credit is due.  Check out this brief article from Mayo Clinic for a list of effects stress has on our body, feelings and behavior.

So today, whether you need a good cry, a foot-stomping, hair-pulling tantrum, or even just an uncontrollable bout of floor-rolling laughter, give yourself permission to do just that (you may want to shut your office door first). I guarantee it will be healthier for you than bottling it up inside.