From various chapters in Equilibrium: 31 Ways to Stay Balanced on Life’s Uneven Surfaces.
What about you?
Do you feel like you don’t fit very well?
Have you been wounded recently? Are there hurts from your past which seem to stay alive and breathing?
Have you thought about stepping aside, giving yourself permission to cry? Have you considered leaving your hurried pace, offering yourself time to grieve?
What movie caused you to cry? What was the scene?
What three experiences in your life bring deep sadness as you remember them? Have you cried about those experiences?
When is the last time you cried? What was it about?
How can you find a healthy balance of crying when you should while refusing to stay forever in that same unbalanced place?
Who do you not want to be around? Why? What does that say about you? What should you do about that?
Do your beliefs come out in your love for others?
Will we love those who disagree with us? Really love? Love as Christ loves? Will it show in how we stand for our beliefs? Will it show in how we state our beliefs? Even as we stand for our convictions, rescue those who are enslaved, strongly state our interpretations, will we be like Jesus? Will we?
Is it difficult for you to be alone? It is hard for you to do nothing? If those are tough for you, what are the reasons? What are practical ways you can choose to pause in your hurried routine? How can scheduling times of simplicity, reflection, prayer, study, and rest help you find a better balance in life’s constant haste?
I think for me it is really easy to find my purpose in the busyness and I never take time to acknowledge the moments of sadness. However, taking time to acknowledge every emotion I may feel during the day has helped me cope with things or situations better because it allows me to get out my feelings then and there.
As a man in this generation, I believe we do not emphasize how important it is to deal with grief. Society often encourages men to bottle up their grief because of traditional gender norms. There is a perception that men should be strong, stoic, and unemotional, which can make it difficult for them to express their feelings, especially when it comes to grief. This can lead to men feeling like they are not allowed to grieve openly and are expected to keep their emotions bottled up. This poem shows that crying is a natural way to process emotions and relieve stress. When we cry, we allow ourselves to feel and express our emotions, which can be cathartic and healing.
I believe that in the world today, we look down on people that often cry. I remember growing up as a child and my parents getting upset at me for crying. My mom would be like, “Makenzie why are you crying? It isn’t going to help anything.” Not saying that my parents were bad parents because they weren’t. But I do believe that the statement that was made has stuck with me throughout my life in negative and positive ways. I think that crying is healthy and it does make me feel better in some situations. I also know that sometimes I cry because I do not get my way, and I believe in that situation the comment that my parents made to me is valid. I guess I am trying to say that it depends on the circumstance. Overall, I think that nobody should be judged for crying because everyone deals with situation differently.
Dang. this hit deep. How I feel like each one of these questions represented a different part of me that would feel better if I didn’t get asked those questions. I am someone who has over the past 4 years barely cried, like I’m not kidding… I could probably count, maybe not on one hand or my hands alone, but definitely could think back to each and every time I have cried in the last 4 years or so. And thats not healthy. But thinking about this and how I have been adapting and learning to cry and express emotions in a healthy manner reminds me of how I oftentimes just skip over letting myself feel a negative emotion. When, in life, we have so many different types of emotions, and not letting ourselves feel a certain type of emotion is kind of silly because we will have the emotion either way, it is just a matter of whether or not we can take that emotional state and turn it into something that benefits us and helps us grow.
I tend to be a very sensitive person and I wear all my emotions on my sleeve. I can obviously control my emotions, but with people I am closer with, they know when I am upset and about to cry. Sometimes I feel embarrassed to cry in front of people so I just hold it in and then I end up never letting it out until days or sometimes weeks later when tons of things have piled up and I finally break. I don’t really know why I feel embarrassed because it is a natural thing and helps me feel better. I feel like society today has just made crying seem like you’re being dramatic or wanting attention, but most of the time that is not the case.
This blog is a little tougher for me to really relate to. I’m not a person who really cries. I did as a kid when I would get hurt, and as I grew up, I was told not to cry because of that, but I just never did truly cry after that. I can’t even remember the last time I cried. However, I am a very passionate person, and people can definitely tell when I care and what I care about. It also doesn’t bother me to be alone. In fact almost every night I have my alone time in my room and it is really beneficial for me.
I really struggle to express myself and my emotions at times. I feel as though the way I feel is not important or valid. It’s hard for me to say how I feel because I don’t want to hurt others instead I bottle it up until I explode which I know is not healthy. I’m trying to figure out how u fit in at Emmanuel and how I can express myself here everyday but it is very hard.
The question that stuck out the most is, “ Do your beliefs come out in your love for others?” I think this is a really interesting question to contemplate. Our beliefs are how we shape our view of the world, and it influences how we handle interactions with others. Personally, I do believe my beliefs come out of my love for others, as it is through those beliefs that I choose who I love to begin with. Altogether, these were all interesting questions to contemplate.
I think this really applies to me with everything I am walking through right now. I often think times it is easy to push these feelings and thoughts away and not allow ourselves to feel them. I think as Christians it can easy to feel like we should just shove any emotion that is not positive away even though those feelings are also from God.
We should allow ourselves to feel things. Why would God give us emotions if He didn’t want us to use them? I hate to sound like a broken record, but emotions don’t equal weakness. The easiest Bible verse to memorize is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” If it was not okay to cry, why would Jesus cry? I never allowed myself to cry because I wanted to be there for everyone. I felt like I had to be the rock. No matter how much I thought I was helping, it was only harming myself and only a matter of time before things would boil over. This was a good reminder that it is perfectly fine to let it all out at times.