Don't Hide From Your Feelings

The Daily Stoic for December 8th, “Don’t Hide From Your Feelings”.

“It’s better to conquer grief than to deceive it.”

—SENECA, ON CONSOLATION TO HELVIA, 17.1b

Throughout this stoic journey, one of my main gripes about stoicism has been its apparent suppression of emotions. However, I have eventually realized how wrong I was about many of my preconceived ideas on stoicism.

Don’t Hide From Your Feelings

And feelings is one of them. As I was going through the Daily Stoic, I felt like stoicism taught us to neglect emotions in favor of reason. I was definitely not ok with that.

On the contrary, stoicism encourages you to not hide or run from your emotions, but to face them, process them, and then move on.

It’s ok to feel grief, pain or sadness -even if we should try to see the positive side of things- and it’s also ok to feel happiness, lust or fury, as long as you rationalize, accept those feelings and then continue with your life. Don’t let them consume you.

Have you ever watched “Six feet underground”, or any other where there’s a morgue? I’ve always found weird this American ritual of masking and applying make up to a dead person’s body, to present this person beautifully in a conference-like room, complete with chairs, catering service and all that stuff. Yes, we have some sort of funeral arrangements and a wake, but it’s a lot more concise.

Whatever the case, they always say that’s it’s necessary to say goodbye. Today’s stoic passage affirms that this is a necessary moment. Nobody should distract us. Instead, we need to face that pain, that grief, and accept it, look at it face to face. I agree.

Conclusion

Today’s Daily Stoic, “Don’t Hide From Your Feelings”, is a recommended read to those who disregard stoicism as lacking empathy and feelings, like I’ve done myself in the past.