Did you know? “I’m fine” is the second most told lie..the first one is “I have read the T&C.s”

Being apologetic, self-deprecating, or using humor are all ways of trying to minimise the importance of your emotions. You may feel safer, but hiding how strongly you feel isn’t completely honest.

Research suggests that suppressing or hiding emotions harms your health. Suppressed emotions can lead to increased blood pressure,increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease,and greater vulnerability to pain.

You may never have thought about it this way, but hiding your emotions is limiting the honesty of your communication. If you’re not willing to talk about your emotions, or you are only willing to show “acceptable” emotions, you’re not showing people who you really are, which will make it difficult for others to understand what you need.

Everyone processes their emotions differently, but you can’t deal with something you don’t know is there. Finding a way to express your emotions, even if only to yourself, is the first step to being able to work through them.

One of the reasons that we feel bad about specific emotions is that we don’t always draw a distinction between what we feel and how we act. For example, we might think that being jealous is bad because jealous people stop their partners from seeing friends.

Your feelings aren’t ever right or wrong however. They are simply a fact. Rather than struggling with what you should be feeling, focus on your ability to choose what you do about those feelings.

For example, if you are feeling jealous, you might ask your partner not to see their friends. That’s probably not a great solution for a stable relationship. Instead, you could decide to talk to your partner about how you are feeling and ask them for additional reassurance, or you could talk to a therapist about why you feel jealous and devise some coping strategies.

Many of us distinguish between positive and negative emotions, but we actually need the full range of emotions. Some things will bring us joy, and other things will make us sad. We might feel more comfortable with some emotions than others, but ultimately they are all normal.