> It's not wrong having "emotions" and displaying them I agree, it's not wrong, which is why we sympathize with emotional displays in children, the mentally di

> It's not wrong having "emotions" and displaying them I agree, it's not wrong, which is why we sympathize with emotional displays in children, the mentally disabled, and people who have suffered great loss. Those responses are involuntary, or nearly so. The problem is that emotions will lie. As someone who has fought battles with depression, irrational exuberance and other unbalanced states, looking back at how I misinterpreted reality and acted on false certainty is embarrassing. As I've gotten older, I have strengthened an invisible muscle which allows me to clamp down on my involuntary responses so I can evaluate them more rationally before choosing whether to embrace or extinguish them. I consider myself very fortunate to have had the time to make progress with this, and I am always happy to see others do the same. When you bottle up a feeling that you later realize to have been based on falsehood, it doesn't hurt your psyche any longer. It just fades away, with only a glimmer of gratitude left behind that you didn't make a foolish choice because of it.