Where Do Suppressed Emotions Go?

Violent emotions sometimes go out of control.

Jealousy, fear, anger and even love can suddenly turn explosive.

Suppression of such emotions often becomes the norm, as people prefer to avoid fully experiencing them or responding to them. This redirects or channels the emotions into other areas and physical activities.

Example: Small children who are afraid of the dark often talk or sing to get their minds off the fear.

Sometimes emotions are misread, and we start to block the experience of the particular emotion by mislabelling it. Example: Sadness can be mislabelled as anger, just because we perceive sadness as a weak emotion and anger as a strong one.

We also deprive an emotion of ‘oxygen’ by not giving attention to it, and in many cases, deflect it to avoid confrontation or being rude.