UNITED STATES—Emotions can be a rollercoaster people. Some days you are on a high and then other times you can be on a low, but you have to express your emotions people. Some of us bottle our emotions up until they reach a point where we explode. Let me be clear, explosion is NOT always full of rage or anger which is something that plenty of people suspect.

Some do explode when their emotions reach a peak and they scream, yell, shout and let out a bit of rage and frustration. For others, it is all about tears of joy that erupt as a result of bottling up grief and sadness that one has been struggling with. So either in most cases you’re crying your eyes out or you’re shouting to the top of your lungs people.

So what is the problem with bottling your emotions? It impacts your overall mental health. Not properly grieving or expressing your emotions can lead to depression or other issues that become problematic if not properly dealt with. For those who are dealing with frustrations in family, work or your personal life they can bubble up to a point that instead of you voicing how you feel they continue to pile up until you can no longer bottle up those emotions and everything erupts and not in a good way people.

Rage can be a dangerous emotion in my opinion because you react without fully thinking about what you’re doing before you do it. You might say and do things that you regret later, but you cannot take them back once done. Sadness can lead to one seriously placing their emotions in a bottle to the point that when they spill out it becomes difficult to navigate and grapple with them. You haven’t expressed that grief from the death of a family member, friend or close loved one and once you start to grieve it becomes extremely tough to comprehend just what has occurred.

So what are some ways that you can express your emotions? Take whatever negative stimuli that is in your life and attempt to turn it into something positive. Frustrated at work, write about it in a journal, listen to music, exercise, watch TV, watch a movie, draw, clean up the house, do something that brings you joy. The same can apply if you’re dealing grief. Recall the happier times with that loved one, write them a letter, scream into a pillow, do whatever you can with a sane mind in place to unleash what you are indeed feeling.

That is the problem with our society we are constantly told not to be emotional beings, especially men. I don’t know why society seems to think that is ok because we focus so much on gender roles. Let me be clear people need to understand the difference between gender and sex. Sex is your biological make-up; gender is how you behave based on societal expectations.

Society for some reason wants people to follow preconceived notions based on their biological makeup. However, as we have learned just because you’re born one way does mean your mental state aligns with that. Throw out the societal norms and do what is best for your mental health. Emotions are something that do not go away. We all experience them, we all have to deal with them and expressing your emotions and how you feel is much healthier them keeping them bottled up until you can no longer put the top on the bottle people.

Written By Jason Jones