Ever since I was young, I always remembered being told to “grow a thicker skin” and become less sensitive. This saying can honestly be extremely detrimental to one’s mental health, along with the stigma that being emotional makes you weak. As time goes by, I finally came to understand that is not true whatsoever. With the world we live in now, and currently being in a pandemic, it is hard not to be emotional about all the things in our life. I have found that it is important to always remember that your feelings are valid.
Writing every night is the way I find best to express my feelings and thoughts throughout the day. I take about ten minutes before I’m ready for bed and write about my day. This allows me to properly convey how I felt through the day and what I want for the next day. This is something that has now become a part of my routine at night and has made all the difference in the world for my mental health. I never used to want to share my emotions about much, but this allows me to be honest with myself.
Slowly discovering something you love to do is also an amazing way to express yourself. For myself, I found that taking a little time out of my day to paint has helped keep me calm and focused. This can be any sort of activity that you genuinely want to do because you enjoy it. This will help have a part of your day be something that you look forward to. Another idea is to make time to FaceTime a friend and just catch up. Personally, this is something that I have grown to like since in the past I never really liked to share how I was feeling. However, I have recently found that after a phone call with one of my friends, I feel a lot better with whatever I am dealing with.
It is extremely important to remember to find and do things that make you happy. This is something that I have been continuously working on through this difficult year. However, I still have days where I feel a little more sensitive with all that is going on in my life and that is okay. The stigma around sensitivity needs to end since being emotional is okay.