Have you ever heard or thought to yourself, I’m fragile today. Or maybe you’ve used the words, raw or sensitive. What do we mean when we think this? A lot of times, what we are expressing is that we don’t have a good handle on our pretense (or social mask) today, it is slipping from our grip and our sadness or another emotion is showing. This is very different from being fragile.
The wall between your innermost feelings and thoughts is effectively your defense or pretense. We are not saying this in a pejorative way. Simply, we show certain aspects of ourselves to some and not others. What we are arguing today, is that the thing that has become fragile, when your emotions don’t seem to be under control, is your pretense, not YOU.
So, instead of thinking “I’M fragile today”, perhaps it would be better to consider, my pretense is fragile today. Expressing your sadness (or any emotion) is not fragile, rather it usually has us feel stronger and more centered in ourselves, and often takes courage to do so.
While you might think this is a minor distinction, or semantics, we think it is essential to highlight, because associating expressing emotion with fragility is inaccurate. Emotional strength comes from being willing to feel what you are feeling when you are feeling it. Associating feelings with fragility or weakness gets in the way of our ability to strengthen those muscles.
To emotional strength
