Is it better to keep feelings in?
· Source: Gross & John, JPSP, 2003
Keeping a straight face feels like the grown-up thing to do. In studies, people who usually held feelings in felt more of the bad ones, not fewer.
Is it better to keep feelings in?
Holding it in didn’t make it smaller. People who habitually held their feelings in felt fewer good emotions and more bad ones. Those who habitually looked at the situation again felt more good ones, fewer bad ones, and got on better with others. A link, not proof of cause. Look at it one more time. Tonight, say what happened and what you felt. Then ask how else that moment could be read, and say one other honest version. Say it once. Then see it again. Halflight writes it down under today’s date.