저작권자 © The Soongsil Times(숭실대영자신문) 무단전재 및 재배포 금지
The events in our lives make us feel a certain way. Sometimes we feel happy, angry or even sad. It is perfectly normal for us to have such.
Sometimes in life, however, we often suppress our emotions. As a matter of fact, hiding your emotion is almost considered as virtue in context of the Korean culture. The reason is because many people in Korea consider expressing ones feelings as a sign of mental immaturity or and being unsocial.
On the contrary to these people’s beliefs, holding back ones emotion isn’t what a psychologically mature adult should do. Have you ever heard of Emotional Intelligence? It is the ability to understand and use your feelings to get along well in your life. People who use the skills of Emotional Intelligence deal better with their stress, anger and
anxiety. Without suppressing ones feelings, they can learn how to control and express them out without causing trouble for the people around them.
Emotional Intelligence is all about finding ones true self and expressing them. These emotions should be 1.understood, 2.explored and then 3.released. Although many Korean people go through the second stage pretty smoothly, they seem to be very passive when they get to the third stage. The old Korean term says, “Holding something in will eventually bring illness.” People should really learn how to release what they feel, for their own mental health and those around them. For example, if you’re sad, then cry, and if you’re happy, then laugh. People were designed that way from the beginning. They should not try concealing it.