Being Emotional Doesn't Make You Weak, It Actually Makes You Strong

I was always a bit more on the emotional side of the spectrum. Not that I’d always show it -- like many people, I learned to hold a solid poker face -- but I always felt that things affected me more than they seemed to affect others.

The most emotional people don't get emotional for attention; they’re emotional because that’s the way they've always been.

They don’t choose to be emotional individuals; it’s just the way they are. And there’s nothing at all wrong with that.

We have a cultural averseness towards being emotional -- or, at the very least, we dislike even appearing to be emotional. We're taught as children that that this a weakness, that emotion should cause shame.

This is funny, no? Having feelings means experiencing the world on different levels -- just like we do through sight, touch, smell, etc.

It’s taking in information from the outside world and experiencing a personal connection with it -- which is in itself an experience.

People who are more emotional are experiencing life more than those who aren’t. They feel a more personal connection with their reality. They are, quite literally, living more.

Tell me: How exactly is this a sign of weakness? Weakness is found in our responses to how we experience the world, not in the depth of those experiences.

They form more personal connections with the world.

It’s one thing to sense the world around you, and it’s another to truly experience it. There is a clear distinction between the outside world and you ... until emotions come into the mix.

When we experience emotions in response to things that happen outside of ourselves, we're forming a connection to those things and to the world outside our skin.

I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you that when it comes to drive, diligence, focus and dedication, we need to believe that we are personally invested in order to achieve maximum effort. Emotions are that investment.

They’re more empathic.

One of the greatest skills a person functioning in our world can have is empathy. Empathy allows us to put ourselves in another person’s shoes, see the world through their eyes, and feel the way that they feel.

This is incredibly important, as empathizing helps you understand how other people function -- why they do the things that they do. It allows us to form personal connections with individuals.

Unless we understand empathy, we will be forever alone. Even when we’re surrounded by masses of people, we won't feel connected to them.

They may take things personally, but they’re more passionate.

People might perceive you as weak when they notice that you feel things more deeply than they do.

But vulnerability and emotion are closely tied to passion, which is crucial to living a fulfilling life.

At the same time, passion can be your downfall.

Passion makes it more likely for you to make poor decisions. But you can learn from those poor decisions, and you will come out better for making them.

Their emotions don't govern them; they teach them.

My passions led me down some dark roads, but I emerged ironclad, with an insatiable thirst for greatness. Make your emotions work for you, and you will be unstoppable.

There is a difference between being an emotional mess and letting your emotions control you.

Weakness is allowing your emotions to take the wheel.

The more emotions you experience -- the more emotions you can better understand -- the more you will learn about yourself and people in general.

But you need to be willing to learn. Don’t let your emotions govern your life. Make them work for you.

They learn to deal with their emotions so they never get the best of them.

They learn to take a step back, observe their feelings from a distance, and make better life decisions.

You must learn to differentiate between emotions themselves and the way that you react to them. People often fail to realize just how deep their consciousness is.

We don’t simply encounter the world and then experience emotions in reaction to it.

We experience the world, we experience emotions, and then we interpret these feelings before deciding how to act.

Because our feelings are so personal, we allow them to directly influence how we respond. This is a huge mistake. Emotions don’t tell you about the outside world.

They tell you about yourself. They teach you about yourself -- about how certain things affect you in certain ways.

We experience emotion in order to help us better understand ourselves -- to understand our strengths and weaknesses. Emotions are beneficial only if we learn from them.

But you can only learn from them if you first learn to distance yourself from them, to take a step back and become an observer.

Emotions will teach you more about you and your relationship to the outside world than anything else ever could.

But you need to approach them as an ever-learning observer, a student of life. Otherwise, they can very well weaken you. It's all up to you.

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