Emotions! A Misunderstood Concept.

How often have you been told, why are you crying? Don't feel sad. Why are you so excitable? Why do you get so animated? Welcome back. Today's episode is going to talk about emotionality and emotions. In fact, I picked this up because I had a very interesting conversation with a couple of friends a few days ago. And one of my friends told me how as a young child, when she was growing up, she was always told not to emote. Her father would in fact slam her wrists and tell her, this is not the way girls are supposed to behave. This is not the way you're supposed to react. And in that constant conditioning, so to speak, she continued to subdue her emotions until one day they could hold no more. Yes, I'm talking about emotionality as a way of being human. How many of us are constantly admonished for expression? And then we wonder why we are becoming dull, unaffected creatures. It is because we have a very unfortunate, poor connotation with regards to emotionality. The minute you react, you show excitement, you show intensity, you show passion, which is actually a dictionary definition of being animated, of being spirited, of being alive, you are told that you are actually agitated. The connotation applied to the term agitation is completely wrong. It is often measured in the way of reactability. But agitation is nothing but angry, irritable, overexpression, which comes from a form of tension, restlessness, and more often than not, stress. Animation, on the other hand, comes from deep feelings of entire connectedness to something, from intensity, from a kind of a passion for something that you may believe in or something that you want to stand towards or stand for. And I think it's important, particularly as Women's Day approaches, for us to forget about what we've been taught, particularly as women, as we've been growing up. Emotion is not a bad thing. Emotion distinguishes us from things and makes us human. I think it's time to reclaim back emotionality this Women's Day, so that you are not constantly subdued and suppressed, and you give yourself the right to be human. Wishing you all a wonderful Women's Day. Stay well, stay safe, and please feel free to write to me at varkha at varkhachulani.com. Till next week, it's goodbye.