“Get Over it"

[Don’t Dismiss It - II]

“Stuff it!”
"Get over it.”
“Move on.”

We don’t often say those words to young people, but those are the silent message being sent.

When we disparage emotions, we are claiming they have little value. When we celebrate stoicism, we are celebrating “self-control” and hiding feelings. When we work hard to distinguish emotional thinking and decision making from logical, rational, clear-minded thinking and decision making, we’re tilting the scale away from the complex make-up of our inner world.

And then when those young people grow up with disregard for the diversity of the human experience and little empathy, we know: we taught them that.

“Stuff it!”
"Get over it.”
“Move on.”

We don’t have to say the words to convey the message. Dismissing or disconnecting from the complex emotional world that is in each of us makes doing it to others “second nature”.