One mind, one experience, different views.

Dear Readers, sorry for the absence of posts this past weekend...it's been a busy one.
          Last week I had discussion in my art class about expressing ones' feelings.  I asked, "To talk or not to talk?  Does it help to talk about your feelings, or does it just make it worse? What exactly is the point of expressing your pain through words?"  Personally, I choose to keep painful experiences inside and my brain deals with making them go away.  I chose to write about this because I've always been told I need to "talk" to someone and let my emotions out.  I got some very intelligent responses. Of course the basic answer is, it depends on who you are.  Well I wanted to reach further than that...So after gathering my information, I came to this conclusion;

         Yes, everyone IS different, but a tragedy in one's life may be a daily event for another.  You see, you can't really judge someone's pain to another's.  I relate it to this...a person who has been hit by their boyfriend for the first time can express that as a horrible experience.  BUT, a guy that just broke up with a girl for the first time experiences just as much agony, just in a different way.  Now when it comes to expressing your grief, you must WANT to express it.  One can not be forced to talk about their feelings, or you won't get the true feelings.  Some people are great at expressing themselves, and truly do feel better after doing it.  Others, don't do well verbally expressing emotions, so talking about painful emotions just brings up more mind bearing pain.
          For me, I find it easier when I "bottle up" my emotions.  I feel as if something inside of me slowly chips them away until they just disappear from my thoughts.  Yeah, it may take a while, but it takes me ten times longer to deal with something when someone else knows about it.  If I'm the only one who knows I'm hurt...well then I'm the only one that has to deal with it.  If another person knows about my pain, they try to help you but words don't fix a hurt soul.  On the other hand, some people feel as if another person DOES know about their pain, they AREN'T the only one dealing with it.  A girl told me after I asked her the topic question, "I think it helps to talk about your feelings.  Not to put it on the other person, but to know you aren't the only one worrying about it."  Although it is the complete opposite of how I feel, I think it is a great arguing point.  Most people see things from one side, but when you take a look at the other side...you realize there is more than one way to deal with something.
          As I said before, one's pain can not be compared to another.  It almost like comparing a man's penis size to a woman's breast size, it just doesn't make sense. Our minds are so complex and work in a plethora of different ways, just depending on who's eyes the world is being seen through.  The most common thing I hear when someone is going through a tragic experience is, "It could be worse."  Readers, I must say I disagree to an extent.  Yes, it could be worse in the event of death or even a close to death struggle...But my worst experience is obviously not going to be the same as yours.  Similar to what I stated earlier, if a vegetarian eats meat on accident or you were disowned by yours parents...they are equally as painful to each person going through the tragedy.
          The answer is, find out what is right for you.  If you are person who must talk about things and share them with the ones close to you, then by all means share those emotions.  And if you are one who likes to keep your emotions hidden, or likes to think you don't even have emotions, keep them bottled up.  Don't let someone else influence how you take care of your pain... keep in mind they don't feel through the same skin, look through the same eyes, or hear the same things you do! We are all our own person.

                          Yours truly,
                        Amanda Rae