Joanne Smith argues that ignoring painful feelings is emotional suppression, which operates unconsciously and takes a hidden toll. Naming your emotions instead helps you process them healthily rather than letting them affect you without awareness.
I can handle this, I don't need to be scared. Those kind of— that seems so simple, but that really will take you in a whole new direction. Just expectation, just acknowledging, yeah, things are difficult right now, but I don't need to hurt, I don't need to suffer. We're acknowledging it in a way. You're acknowledging how you're feeling, your emotions, because emotions are a big part of, of this stuff, is recognizing and acknowledging how we feel rather than either purposely pushing them aside— I ain't got time to deal with difficult emotions right now, so they can get pushed away. I mean, that would be what we'd class as suppressing. We know that we've got them, but we're not dealing with them right now. And then it can happen all by itself without even our conscious awareness.
