Foto door Alexander Dummer: https://www.pexels.com/nl-nl/foto/close-upfotografie-van-een-baby-759736/Who the fuck is this dramatic person that sticks its head up every few days/weeks/months? It might be your hormonal alter ego. One of my friends calls it her Hulk. She gets so annoyed that the least bit of annoyance makes her explode. But you could actually embrace this little big Hulk. See her as a major sign of things to come or things that have been there but were buried underneath a cloud of conformity.
On not-Hulk-days, you try to be as good as you can, not angering people or getting ‘too emotional’. But these emotional outbursts are actually beautiful signs you should listen to. You might have noticed that pushing down emotions doesn’t really help. Usually, they get worse and worse. So why not try to look at them? Maybe not in the moment, because just like any other person, I know it’s difficult to accept emotions when you feel them. But see if you can reflect on it later. Write down the situation you were in and the reaction you had. Question yourself why you might have had that reaction, and take yourself seriously. It’s okay to have a reaction. You might not always feel like this but it might be a sign you should look at.
Anger is also an awesome reaction you can look at. Things you’re passionate about make you angry. You might have to set some boundaries, get into a different field of work, or if that’s too much, try volunteering to solve the thing that makes you angry. For example, I can get unreasonably angry with apps that don’t work or signs (for example, road signs or toilet signs) that are unclear. So maybe I should get into design again and make something better. I had a period in life where I got really angry with the injustices done to animals, so I got into politics and added my two cents there. Not that it changed something but at least I could do something with my anger. Not doing anything with it often just makes it worse.
So instead of getting angry with yourself for feeling big emotions, give yourself a big thank you for showing what way to go and do something with it.
